Suicide

Ok well
Someone
This is very serious
And I don’t know if I should address it
Because I’m somewhat tired
But I’ll give it a shot
Because it’s important
And it’s very serious and a troublesome question

“I plan on taking my own life very soon. Why shouldn’t I?”

Well I’m going to assume this isn’t a casual question
You know
That’s been put out for the purposes of display
Well the first thing I would say is you have to think very carefully through the consequences of that for other people
So I’ve had clients in my clinical practice who never recovered from the suicide of a family member
Decades later they’re still torturing themselves about it
And so that’s what you leave behind
Maybe you’re feeling life has been twisted against you and that people deserve to suffer for the misery that they’ve imposed upon you
But I would say think very very carefully before you go down that route
You know, it’s a terrible thing to leave people with
Part of the reason that suicide has been illegal in most societies is because it absolutely devastates the people you leave behind
And you might think
“Well, those people would be better off without me”
And if you get really depressed you could think that way and you could even get to the point that you can’t think any other way than that
If you’re at the point where you can’t think any other way than that then you should tell someone and you should go to the hospital
Because that can happen you know, and it can happen if you get depressed
There are treatments for depression, you know, and many of them work for some people
They certainly beat the hell out of suicide even if they have some negative side effects and sometimes they do, quite frequently they do, but the negative side effects aren’t fatal
I mean there’s lots of reasons that people get depressed that are very very complex
Don’t give up hope and do something final before you’ve explored all possible options
And if you haven’t talked to a psychologist, if you haven’t talked to a psychiatrist, you haven’t tried antidepressants, you haven’t revealed to your family or people that care for you that this is how you’re feeling
Then you owe it to yourself and them to explore every possible avenue before you take such a step
That’s the other thing, you know
You have intrinsic value and you can’t just casually bring that to an end
You leave a hole in the fabric of being itself
A wise man that I once worked with said “you can always commit suicide tomorrow”
You only get to decide that once, and you could put it off
So I would say just put it off, then put it off some more and see what you can do to put yourself together
If you’re so hopeless that you have a suicidal plan, tell someone for God’s sake, tell them
Or go to a hospital and tell them
And for sure try antidepressants, what the hell do you have to lose?
Do everything you possibly can to address the issue before you do something like that
And do give some thought to the people that you’re going to leave behind
Because believe me you may just absolutely wipe them out in a way that they will never recover from
You cannot fix someone’s suicide
You’re stuck with it
You torture yourself for the rest of your life
If I would’ve only known, if I would’ve only said something different
Don’t be so sure that your life is your’s to take, you don’t own yourself the way that you own an object
You have a moral obligation to yourself as a locus of divine value let’s say
You can’t treat that casually, it’s wrong
So those are the reasons
Explore everything you can explore to put yourself back on your feet
All the things, there’s all sorts of treatments for depression
Don’t leave the people around you with that to suffer from for the rest of their lives
Don’t underestimate your value and worth
And don’t underestimate the fact that suicide is wrong
So those are four reasons why you shouldn’t end your life soon

A wise man that once I worked with said
“You can always commit suicide tomorrow”
You only get to decide that once and you could put it off
So I would say just put it off
Put it off
Put it off