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East Street Trader
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London, United Kingdom
Jun 2000
time: 05:36
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I am blessed (cursed?) with an equable temperament and rarely feel anything worse than being mildly fed up.
Conceivably if every single person in the world that I love all died in some hideous catastrophe I might get within sight of misery so deep it could not be bourne - but even in such a case as that I don't really think I would feel suicidal.
So such feelings are a bit of a closed book to me.
I suppose the fundamental thing about suicide is its finality. Whereas the particular reasons which make someone miserable at a particular time are going, usually, to be transitory. Which gives suicide its reputation as a long term solution to a short term problem.
I think I can, just about, remember enough about the insecurities of the teenage years not to be surprised that suicide is sometimes resorted to by unhappy teenagers.
If it were an option for such kids to be a bit less self obsessed they might notice that pretty well no one around them is the same at 25 as they were at 17. And conclude they will not remain the same themselves either. Which does not lead to the conclusion that the new person into whom you are going to evolve will necessarily be happy. But it does mean they will not be unhappy in exactly the same way.
I imagine those close to someone who does commit suicide, parents especially, must forever wonder what they could have done differently. You would be bound to feel that you had failed them in some way.
It is truly odd that suicide rates go up in affluent societies where, or so you would have thought, people are more comfortable and have the best chance of finding some fun and contentment.
Anyway, I hope those who post here who sometimes - or often - feel suicidal find the resources not to act on the feelings. I have known any number of people who have had to go through one or more really bad patches in their lives. But I have known no-one, nor even heard of anyone, for whom such a patch just carried on endlessly and insuportably. It often seems that life is bound to continue much as it is - but in fact the actual experience of life is that it involves ceaseless change. Sometimes you need to be a year or two down the track to have the perspective to appreciate that some particular change had been going on. But looking back you can clearly see that change was happening. Other times change comes very obviously and suddenly. Either way the things which, during a particular period, seem so unbearable will find themselves swept away. They are caught up in the process of change just as ineluctably as we are ourselves.
Now, if the process of change was itself the thing someone could not bear - because they were in a state of perfect bliss perhaps - then, I suppose, deciding to end life and the process of change it necessarily involves, might have something to commend it. 
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Rogan Josh
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quote:
Originally posted by East Street Trader
It is truly odd that suicide rates go up in affluent societies where, or so you would have thought, people are more comfortable and have the best chance of finding some fun and contentment.
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I don't find this odd. If you are miserable because you are poor or disadvantaged then you might feel that you had some prospect of improving your situation. But if you find yourself unhappy even although you have everything you could possibly want, then it can be difficult to see how you can ever change your life and become happy. And if you think you can never be happy again, suicide can seem like a viable option.
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19-05-2004 04:24
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