The Truth about Suicide

Tweet

After reading a seriously misinformed opinion regarding self-mutilation in a thread at MyLot I wanted to start up a discussion about suicide and mental illness in general. I really feel like suicide is misunderstood. A lot of people's thinking is still stuck in the dark ages. I've found this website (www.theberries.ns.ca/BOTW_archives/suicide_myths.html) which says it a lot better than I do. What I do want to state is that I get very angry when people say that a suicide attempt is just a cry for help like the person has done something wrong. All it means is that a person has felt so hopeless and worthless they have felt like death is the only option for them. If they are unsuccessful at suicide and it leads to some real help then that's great obviously but the real problem is that they need to go to such extreme measures to ask for help in the first place! Society needs to take a long hard look at themselves and the way they deal with suicide and depression. Obviously there are many contributing factors and everyone's case is different but I think if our community made the effort to really learn and then educate about mental illness and suicide then we'd be taking a step in the right direction. Putting the blame on the sufferers and making them feel like out-casts is not the way forward. Depression affects so many people that statistically we should all know at least one person that suffers from depression or a related mental illness - even if you don't know about it! I would really love people to take part in this discussion, particularly if you're willing to share any personal stories to either illustrate or argue against any points of making. The first step to understanding is discussing...