World Suicide Prevention Day

As I think about and read about suicide, I notice there is some animosity between people who have attempted suicide or just empathize with those that have and the surviving family members or those who empathize with them.One side knows the pain of feeling suicidal, the other says there's no excuse for causing that much pain and grief on those around you. I wish this were not so. Do you get angry at someone who is unable to function because they have cancer? Or diabetes? Suicide is usually a symptom of mental illness and the brain is no exception to dysfunction. If someone is dying of cancer, would you expect them to stay alive for the sake of family and friends? Mental illness is complex and so is its relationship with self-will. The very organ you need to consider family and friends and getting help is the one that is not working properly in mental illness. Some people manage to think straight and get help, some don't and there are a lot of factors involved. I hope to research this question in the future. What differentiates someone who survives mental illness from those that don't?

There are already some obvious factors but I would like to understand in greater detail. One of them is stigma. Stigma is something we can all work on. We must not shame or guilt someone who is suicidal or who died by suicide. I know a lot of people end up asking themselves how they didn't see it coming and what they could have done differently to avoid or stop it in a family member or friend. This is a natural reaction but ultimately not very helpful. Would you ask yourself the same questions if someone died of cancer? Sometimes we catch diseases early enough to intervene with professional help, sometimes we can't. Let's not treat suicide as a character defect or something selfish any more but as a symptom of a serious disease that requires professional help.