Suicide: destiny or choice...

Tweet

I recently got into an argument with a friend of mine about suicide, as someones grandfather that we knew had committed it. It is in no doubt a terrible thing for anyone to deal with, and as we both agreed with that point, we did not on the cause of it. My friend believed that suicide is a predetermined destiny that was given to them at birth in the form of a mental illness that tells them to commit suicide. Some people believe that a person who is mentally ill with suicide has no choice to whether they stay alive, it is set in their mind that they should kill themselves. I believed otherwise, that suicide is a choice, and that events lead to the choice. My friend occussed me of believing that psychology is not a science. While I do believe it is a science, I also knew the fact that psychology also says that negative thinking increases your chances of suicide, and positive thinking can add years to your life. He disagreed and said that their mental illness causes them to think negatively. I believe that a chemical imbalance can decrease someones ability to think positively, but I still wonder, have they lost their ability to choose? is their suicide a result of a choice or just their brain carrying out what the mental illness tells them to do. Another question to get your mind going is whether the person was born with the mental illness or whether they developed it through outside factors such as lifestyle or environment. In otherwords, do they develope suicidal tendencies because they were not taught how to deal with tough situations? One big topic, a lot of questions, answer whichever question sticks out to you the most or that you can grasp. If you have an opinion about suicide, lets hear it. More questions... Some believe that suicide is caused by a mentall illness and is an understandable act by those who have this mentall illness, others believe it is a selfish choice, what do you think? Do all those that commit suicide have a mentall illness?