# What keeps you going?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 3, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780 "2012-11-03T18:00:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/1 "2012-11-03T18:00:58Z")
When you want to throw in the towel, jump off a bridge, and end the whole disaster, what keeps you hanging on?
Anything, big or small. Family, job, wanting to be around to see the next season of your favorite TV show, the fact that someone has to feed your hamster, whatever.
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### Author:  [@BackroadsAndBeers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BackroadsAndBeers)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/2 "2012-11-03T18:15:22Z")
Knowing that throwing in the towel means everything you’ve ever gotten through before that point, all the blood, sweat, tears, sleepless nights, or agonizing days, all that was for nothing if you give up now.
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### Author:  [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/3 "2012-11-03T18:37:03Z")
That I haven’t published anything yet. The only time I thought it wouldn’t matter if I died\* was when I deleted everything I had ever written or designed. Then I remembered I had most of it on another disk and I was better. (Perhaps ironically, I doubt I’ll ever finish those stories. But that’s not the point.)
- I’ve never been suicidal. I’ve had plenty of times when I thought it wouldn’t matter if I’d never been born.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/4 "2012-11-03T18:59:58Z")
Great radio.
. Great radio…
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/5 "2012-11-03T19:03:24Z")
I guess I’d just rather die fighting.
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### Author:  [@cncdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cncdad)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/6 "2012-11-03T19:04:41Z")
My young sons. I am the only parent they have so I know I have no choice but to keep fighting on no matter how bad things get
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### Author:  [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/7 "2012-11-03T19:07:12Z")
Knowing that others would be in pain if I gave up. Seriously, this is prime when I’m in a completely ‘throw in the towel’ mood.
Beyond that, there are people I know online that I’ve never met face-to-face, and I really want to. I keep going so that I continue to have a chance to do so. I know, it’s small, but it works for me.
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### Author:  [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/8 "2012-11-03T19:59:30Z")
I have to see what’s next.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/9 "2012-11-03T20:03:01Z")
The Small One.
Also baseball.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/10 "2012-11-03T20:26:16Z")
For me, it’d be a sin I’d rather not have on my ledger.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/11 "2012-11-03T20:40:01Z")
All I have to do is think about the pain it would cause my husband. I went through a period of suicidal ideation earlier this year and when I finally came out of my funk I was horrified to see what the prospect of losing me had done to him. He loves me. It is my duty to protect him and keep him safe. I can’t leave him.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/12 "2012-11-03T20:44:30Z")
Fear of death keeps me going.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/13 "2012-11-03T20:45:01Z")
Suicide, if done responsibly, (and I would _have_ to do it responsibly) would just be another damn thing on my already damned long damned to-do list.
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### Author:  [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/14 "2012-11-03T20:46:30Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#):
>
> Great radio.
>
> . Great radio…
I came in to say that. Is there nothing so obscure that someone on the SDMB won’t mention it?
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/15 "2012-11-03T20:47:39Z")
Because tomorrow might be the best day of my life.
Because anyone anywhere could be dead in five minutes if that’s what they wanted to do. What’s so great about it?
Because, as Harvey Fierstein put it “The great thing about suicide is that it’s not one of those things you have to do right now or you lose your chance forever. I mean, you can always do it tomorrow.”
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### Author:  [@ptr2void](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ptr2void)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/16 "2012-11-03T20:59:16Z")
The dread of what others would think of me otherwise.
Pretty darn irrational, but it guides pretty much all of my behavior.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/17 "2012-11-03T21:15:49Z")
I don’t look for permanent solutions for temporary problems.
Besides, I’m still having waaaaaay too much fun.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/18 "2012-11-03T21:17:24Z")
Everything.
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### Author:  [@Sticks\_and\_Scones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sticks_and_Scones)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/19 "2012-11-03T21:18:49Z")
> [@ArrMatey](#):
>
> Knowing that others would be in pain if I gave up. Seriously, this is prime when I’m in a completely ‘throw in the towel’ mood.
This exactly.
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### Author:  [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-you-going/639780/20 "2012-11-03T21:38:01Z")
I have only felt the way the OP describes in the first sentence once in my life. It was long ago and I really don’t want to recall the memory.
If I were to feel that way now - it would be **everything** in my life and **all** that it represents that keeps me going.
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