Another suicide based on this past election

[Bucky]

http://www.blogofdeath.com/archives/001253.html
Jonathan Aurthur, author of The Angel and the Dragon: A Father's Search for Answers to His Son's Suicide: The Myths and Realities of Mental Illness, took his own life on Novemenber 22nd. According to Blog of Death:

In recent years, however, Aurthur had been unable to find a job. Friends said he grew depressed over his mounting credit card debt, the re-election of President George W. Bush and the ever-present pain of losing his son.

As with the other suicide attributed to this election, that young Georgia boy who killed himself at Ground Zero, there are many other contributing factors leading up to a person making the sad final decision to check out before their time.

But the point should not be lost that this election has been traumatic for all of us, if for no other reason than that the country's leadership is taking us off into dangerous territories which we as a country have in the past chosen not to travel and because so many of our fellow citizens seem almost wilfully blinded to the danger signs along that route.

I can't excuse Mr Aurthur's decision, of course. Suicide is always a wrong choice made by someone who's lost the ability to make the right choice. But I understand his sadness. This is a big country and there are a lot of people determined to save it from its bad navigator. There's a zillion reasons for hope against all our fears and not a single reason to justify that final despair.

If you're having a tough holiday season, find someone to call. Or just keep posting honestly here at DU. We're all together and this dark midnight will end far sooner than you think, and far more suddenly than Mr Bush will ever understand. But whatever the obstacles, let's all stay on the road together, okay?

[w4rma]

1. If you are aware of what is going on in this country, now, and you are

contemplating suicide, then you need to STOP. STOP right there. No matter HOW BAD things APPEAR to be, you are only AIDing the fascists by going down without a fight. Instead, I recommend that you reanalyze the situation, redouble your efforts even if it means working the longest hours on the most degrading job ever, and STAY WITH US and help make this world a BETTER PLACE in your spare time (or full time, if/when you find out how to do it).

Suicide is like going down without a fight. The folks who want you to shut up win without firing a shot.

[area51]

11. interesting

But in Aurthur's case, "in recent years, however, Aurthur had been unable to find a job." I think a lot of people have no idea of just how hard it is to get a job in this dying economy, until they lose their own job. The nazi media has not really mentioned this for the most part.

[Karenina]

18. I wonder how many suicides there have been

based on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. :freak:

[bush_is_wacko]

13. Yes! Please realize we are MANY and this fight has just begun!

If you are depressed PLEASE get help.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Very important and essential post...this one and its reply may save lives.

[Bucky]

3. Only if it's noticed. Hmm, but I only got a few replies. I could just die.

Or fight. Think I'll fight.

[wankawanka]

4. wow thats to bad

[Ladyhawk]

5. When I read posts like this, I always get the feeling that the

people discussing suicide don't really "get it," you know? Have you been there? Have you suffered for YEARS with severe treatment-resistant depression? Have you had shock treatments? Do you understand what it's like to NEVER feel quite right for years and years and years and years???? Do you know what it's like when your best emotion is relief???? Do you know what it feels like to watch as the remissions grow farther and farther apart while the severity of the depression increases with each relapse????

No? Then maybe you should stop and think before pontificating on the "wrongness" of suicide.

"Suicide is always a wrong choice made by someone who's lost the ability to make the right choice."

Bullshit. There are times when suicide is a viable option. There should be doctor-assisted suicide for physical terminal illness. That much is certain.

I'm wondering if there should be assisted suicide for patients with chronic illnesses that will never get better. I've got a bunch of them: diabetes; degenerative disc disease; severe, treatment-resistant depression. When these become too much to bear, I believe a person has the right to take his or her own life. After all, a person's life is all they really have.

You'd better believe I hang on like a son-of-a-bitch. I investigate every new procedure, every new medication. I plod through. I stick with it, day after day with almost zero help. I face it all alone. Alone I will decide when it's too much. The only thing I have control of is how much suffering I can take. But I will continue as long as I can.

But...I'm tired of people telling severely depressed patients to "call someone" or "get in touch with a counselor"...blah, blah, blah. Calling someone doesn't do shit. Outpatient care isn't that great and inpatient care is abominable.

The platitudes are oh-so-old. I don't mean to offend, but Sweet Jesus, the platitudes are SO OLD, twenty years old. And I'm tired of hearing them.

[Forkboy]

6. I can totally appreciate your post

especally right now.

[Lost4words]

9. LADYHAWK, your insight is powerfull and spot on.

thank you for your post, thank you for not trivilizing the issue.

I will not condem those who have choosen this path.

[amazona]

12. your strength and honesty are amazing, ladyhawk NT

.

[G_j]

14. thank you

what you are saying needs some deep listening.
These are questions that go to core of the great mystery of our existence here (on earth). Nobody can judge for another.
Honesty is one of our greatest hopes and gifts. Thank you for sharing in that honesty.

I also want to acknowledge that the original post was done in sincerity and a desire to help others.
Sometimes we can't help as much as we might desire to. Sometimes we can only acknowledge the mystery of what another's experience may be to us. Suffering is part of that mystery and it is not always possible to understand or offer answers for another.


"There is a road, no simple highway
between the dawn and the dark of night
and if you go, no one may follow
that path is for your steps alone.

(Hunter/Garcia)

[IStriker]

15. I have to agree with your post. I am just thankful that...

I have remissions that allow me to explore any new treatments and to keep searching because I know by now that I will soon be overtaken once again. Nothing has worked for me but if I can hang on through the severe depression, there may be relief once again.

[Cat Atomic]

17. I had the same thing, LH.

For years I suffered from depression, and considered suicide constantly. I couldn't take the drugs they kept prescribing for me because they'd make me sweat and shake, and my heart would pound like I'd just run 10 miles.

I know exactly what you're talking about- especially about the platitudes and advice. There is no magic tip you can offer someone with real depression.

My depression would come for a month, then go for a month... then come for 3 months, and go for 1 month... then 6 months, 1 month... then a year on, a week off... horrible days.

I have no idea what happened for me but I swear, mine went away one day and never came back. I can only tell you that I hope something similar happens for you and I'll be thinking about you.

[pearl]

25. Mental Anguish

Mental Pain is just about the worst pain I've ever
endured. About 30 years of it.
I've been free of it now for about 10 years.
Waiting it out or working it out does have a very
sweet payoff. I swear to you the depth of the
joy, once it's gone, is equal to or greater than the
anguish.

Light Falls
sending shadows
down the wall.
The darkness
now revealed.
I smile as I think
of my fear
in the darkness.
Watching the patterns
from my window,
I gain courage
for the coming night.

"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living"
Mother Jones

[traco]

7. Kick

This needs to be seen!

[bling bling]

8. Depression is a monster

People who have not experienced it will never know what it is like until they have experienced it. They can only summon up empathy using their own experiences of being sad or blue or down in the dumps.

Even though I've been through it, I have absolutely no idea how to "cure it." I don't know if there is a cure, other than time. The only advice I have is for the people who have a loved one with depression, and that advice is to not give unsolicited advice.

Advice made me crazy. "Just do this" or "maybe you should try this" or "what I do when I feel like that is...." Even if it was GOOD advice, involving healthy things like exercise or getting out or whatever, I couldn't take it. It's hard to explain.

Depression is maddening, for everyone involved.

P.S. This was not directed at anything said in the OP. Just my .02 on the topic. I'm glad this topic was brought up here as I have extensive personal experience and a great deal of interest in the subject.

[mdmc]

10. I guess suicide may be justified... I just hate losing Dem voters..

God bless, this mess...

[pnb]

27. I know what you mean

It kinda sucks when all those other people kill themselves but when its a Democratic voter it REALLY sucks...

[Karenina]

16. I wonder if any Iraqis

committed suicide today. :freak:

[Lost4words]

19. do you reaqlly have to ask? n/t

[Karenina]

20. It was a rhetorical question.

:cry:

[Lost4words]

22. As was mine. )-:

:cry: 'ing with you............................

[Lady Sonelle]

21. A Commentary on Suicide

This will not be a popular opinion, but nonetheless, I shall place it forth for consideration, for it si as valid as any other.

Suicide is not always "The wrong choice"! There are times when rational, planned self-deliverance is the only reasonable choice if one is to retain personal integrity!

Poverty is degrading. It is ruinous, harsh, brutalising, expecially so when combined with failing health, inability to find employment or retain housing.

I know. I have been there.

So have many of My friends. Those who do not have an intimate knowledge of homelessness and the homeless can never grasp the full dehumanisation of the condition. They can never understand the sheer INVISIBILITY a homeless person attains when they become identifiable as impoverished and homeless. They can never grasp the sheer horrible DAMAGE done to the spirit, the soul, the body and the mind of the person enduring poverty and deprivation.

In a capitalist society, poverty is inevitable. Particularly so when the government makes it impossible for those on Welfare of Social Security to save *anything* for old age! When/if checks stop coming, the person is left with *nothing*... nothing whatsoever, between them and the street.

Again, I have been there. I have been homeless. I have known many homeless persons, know one right now whom I am unable to help.

For such circumstances, suicide is the only RATIONAL choice! Just as euthanasia is a rational choice for unendurable and incurable physical pain and debility, it is the rational choice when the alternative is death on the street!

And BELIEVE Me when I say that, should I ever again be faced with homelessness and poverty, I *WILL* kill Myself! When I was homeless before, I was young, in my early twenties, strong, determined and healthy. That is no longer the case. I am nearing sixty, no longer conventionally employable and in today's economy, not viable.

When faced with financial ruin, unemployability and possibly the street, suicide is the better course. But the best course of all is to use that final decision to *communicate* as well as self-deliver.

Just as the Buddhist monk who self-immolated made an indelible statement about the Viet Nam war, so can any person seeking self deliverance in this current political state of affairs.

In history, the finest and best examples of heroism have been those who made the final statement count. The Divine Wind of Japanese fighter pilots, in the dying days of the Japaese Empire, taking off with no landing gear on their planes, the self immolation of Buddhist monks, and, even though they are considered The Enemy, the suicide bombers who detonate themselves in crowds... EAch and every person who finds that they truly have *nothing* *left* to live for... and who have made their desperation one last act of defiance... I salute them.

Any population with nothing left to lose eventually is forced to consider such extremes. ANY population and I number Americans in that tally. Do I support terrorism? NO! In fact, I would really rather that everyone dies of old age, peacefully, in their beds, surrounded by loving family and friends... but this administration is dead set on seeing to it that ONLY the ones they APPROVE of can afford to die of old age! And so, to EVERYONE whose death would probably (in their eyes) "benefit" this current administration... DON'T DO IT! but if you do feel you have utterly nothing left to lose....that you have absolutely no other choice... You are the one to tie the white silk scarf around your forehead.

Lady Sonelle

[Lost4words]

23. Great Post Lady Sonelle.

It is good to see many people are starting to understand the rational behind the ultimate personal choice.

Tha anger I have is not toward those who have made this choice but the ones who drove them to the act.

[Karenina]

24. What YOU said!

And boy am I glad you did!

[FlaGranny]

26. After reading the posts so far

in this thread, I agree that suicide CAN be a valid choice. What I would remind everyone of, though, is the horrible sentence a suicide places on those that love you. You can do no worse to the people who love you. I lost my own daughter before she had a real chance at an adult life. How much worse it would have been for me had it been suicide - I don't even want to think about it. Death affects not ONLY the one who dies.

[Karenina]

28. I received that sentence.

It took me 40 years to work it through. 40 years to understand that my loved-one's demise was about HIM, not about me. At this point, I think our western attitudes about death and dying are pretty screwed up.