# Why is suicide bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 28, 2005, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038 "2005-11-28T08:15:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/81 "2005-11-30T04:53:51Z")
> [@Tevildo](#): > > It’s a pity the medical profession didn’t stick with the old term, “melancholia”. I agree that it’s confusing, but no, it’s not a pity. Melancholia means “black bile” and dates from the time when people thought your moods were caused by the four humors, so maybe you can see where using that term would make the whole idea of clinical depression seem rather unscientific. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/82 "2005-11-30T05:15:45Z")
Wow, blast from the past. I was an asher for about a year (under a different name); member in good standing, with some of my posts even making it into the FAQ. I became friends with several in that group, and even met a couple of them. Good people. In fact, I was trying to reconnect with them to see who was still around when I stumbled across the SDMB. Kinda puts [post=3763622]my very first post here[/post] into context, eh? There’s a couple things I’m waiting for, which in all likelihood will take about another decade, but I’ve known for 20 years that I will die by suicide. So what of it? That makes me a bad person? So what if x number of people have it worse than me. Y number of people have it better. Who’s to judge my life? Certainly not you. Incidentally, there are two names on here that I recognize. One is not the same person, but the other is **lekatt**. You think his trolling here is obnoxious? You can’t imagine how much I (and all ashers) hate him. ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/83 "2005-11-30T09:34:02Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I agree that it’s confusing, but no, it’s not a pity. Melancholia means “black bile” and dates from the time when people thought your moods were caused by the four humors, so maybe you can see where using that term would make the whole idea of clinical depression seem rather unscientific. Hmm - by that argument, we should rename influenza, malaria, and hysteria. 🙂 I’m not suggesting that we should return to the humoral theory of disease, just that the name of the condition derived from it is better than the modern one. ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/84 "2005-11-30T10:07:20Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Exactly. Life is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It’s just that the alternative is nothing. I apologise for misunderstanding you. On that basis, I’ll reframe my question - if life has become a bad thing, is it still always preferable to death? > [@](#): > > That sounds like a horrible way to live but it seems to me that some help is available. I also think that I would want to exhaust all my options and then some before trying something so final as suicide. But you _would_ regard suicide as acceptable in those circumstances, in the same way that many posters here have said that it’s acceptable in the case of “terminal illness”? I don’t want to come over as arguing that suicide is the _first_ option someone who suffers from depression (or cancer, or MS, or any of the “legitimate” terminal diseases) should consider, just that it _can be_ a valid solution. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/85 "2005-11-30T10:49:32Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Exactly. Life is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It’s just that the alternative is nothing. > > I guess the way I understand it is feeling how I feel at my crappiest, all the time, for no apparent reason. That sounds like a horrible way to live but it seems to me that some help is available. I also think that I would want to exhaust all my options and then some before trying something so final as suicide. > > And not to sound insensitive, but I stand by my original statement. Plenty of people do in fact choose to deal with their depression. They seek help or exercise or whatever it takes. I did not mean you should sit there and suffer silently alone. What are ya…comprehension impaired? You make these statements as if you never read what anyone else in the thread has written. Go back. Read all the posts. Then if you have something to say that’s relative to the give-and-take going on here, try posting again. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/86 "2005-11-30T13:14:40Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > And not to sound insensitive, but I stand by my original statement. Plenty of people do in fact choose to deal with their depression. They seek help or exercise or whatever it takes. “What ever it takes” implies that there is a solution to depression, if sufferers merely try hard enough. But the sad fact is, [half the people who seek professional help find no relief](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=8946). > [@](#): > > I did not mean you should sit there and suffer silently alone. And yet you offer no alternative to half the people suffering depression. Yes, you do sound insenstive, whether you mean to or not. ---
**Author:** ![wayward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wayward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wayward)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/87 "2005-11-30T14:32:06Z")
[QUOTE=John\_Stamos’\_Left\_Ear] Not if they do not want contact with you for whatever reason. So it’s no different in that case, is it.QUOTE] No, it’s not. In both cases I’d be angry at the person for removing themselves from my life, and probably feeling guilty about what I might have done to upset them. I’m very much of the school of thought that people should be allowed to do what ever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt others and, as other people have already said, suicide most definitely does. Luckily, I’ve never had a friend or family member commit suicide but if I ever did, I’d imagine one of the major emotions I’d feel would be anger. Anger at them for taking away someone I cared about, even though they did it to themselves. The same anger I’d feel towards a drunk driver or a murderer. I can also see that forcing someone to stay alive when they have nothing to live for is hurtful towards them and that my own viewpoint could be seen as selfish, so it’s certainly a difficult question. There are plenty of accounts, in this thread and elsewhere, of people who have been on the brink of suicide and gone on to live happy, fulfilling lives. Since this is the only life we know for sure that we have, shouldn’t that be enough to convince people to keep going? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/88 "2005-11-30T14:34:43Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > What are ya…comprehension impaired? You make these statements as if you never read what anyone else in the thread has written. Go back. Read all the posts. Then if you have something to say that’s relative to the give-and-take going on here, try posting again. I think that’s a little uncalled for. I read through most of the posts and I’m making a serious attempt to understand your point of view. I’m certainly getting a taste of what it must be like dealing with people who are depressed. You can’t understand why they are in a funk all the time and no matter how much you try to understand or help them all you get is “you can’t understand!”. It almost seems like substance addiction in many ways, except that instead of caring only about your drug fix at the expense of everything else, you don’t care about anything at the expense of everything else. > [@Tevildo](#): > > I apologise for misunderstanding you. On that basis, I’ll reframe my question - if life has become a bad thing, is it still always preferable to death? I guess I will turn that question back on you and ask “how bad is too bad”? A lot of people have shitty lives without depression. A lot of people who suffer from depression find some way to cope. I’ll ask **Siege** , who seems to have suffered severe depression - do you find things in life now that you enjoy that makes you glad you didn’t kill yourself when your depression was at it’s worst? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/89 "2005-11-30T15:03:31Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I think that’s a little uncalled for. I read through most of the posts and I’m making a serious attempt to understand your point of view. > > I’m certainly getting a taste of what it must be like dealing with people who are depressed. You can’t understand why they are in a funk all the time and no matter how much you try to understand or help them all you get is “you can’t understand!”. It almost seems like substance addiction in many ways, except that instead of caring only about your drug fix at the expense of everything else, you don’t care about anything at the expense of everything else. It’s not that you “don’t” care…it’s that you “can’t” care. I agree with those who think the term “depression” is tossed around rather lightly these days. I believe that antidepressants are overprescribed and I also believe that many people turn to medication for every rough spot they encounter in life when they should just fucking deal with it. But acute and chronic depression are very real and there is often no relief for sufferers. If your life is one endless stream of pain and emptiness, hell…why bother? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/90 "2005-11-30T15:41:56Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m certainly getting a taste of what it must be like dealing with people who are depressed. You can’t understand why they are in a funk all the time and no matter how much you try to understand or help them all you get is “you can’t understand!”. If you have never been suicidal, I’d say you can’t understand those who have. I don’t understand transgenderism. I can’t even imagine it, other than with lousy analogies. I don’t say, though, that because I can’t imagine it that it isn’t real. There are things that I simply won’t ever be able to grasp because they are outside my ken. But I’ve been suicidal. I know about that one. Some people can undoubtedly imagine what it’s like without experiencing it but, frankly, empathy doesn’t seem to be something you have much of. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/91 "2005-11-30T15:45:30Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > If you have never been suicidal, I’d say you can’t understand those who have. Note: This was a specific “you,” not a general one. Some people can understand without ever having been suicidal. I don’t think you, **msmith537** , will ever be one of those people. You’ll have to experience it to “get it.” ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Battery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@Dead\_Battery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Battery)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/92 "2005-11-30T18:42:02Z")
Surely the _one_ true fundamental right that exists to humans (putting aside lofty ideals of adequate clean drinking water, food, abortion, etc.) is the decision to terminate their life? Why add to the suffering and mental anguish of people already considering suicide by forcing social guilt and shame to reside on their conscience for the final period of their life? > [@msmith537](#): > > Plenty of people do in fact choose to deal with their depression. Depression is an extremely general term, and some forms of it may not present a choice to the person suffering. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/93 "2005-12-01T04:30:00Z")
> [@wayward](#): > > Since this is the only life we know for sure that we have, shouldn’t that be enough to convince people to keep going? I feel like I’m reading a big yellow book titled “Pascal’s Wager for Dummies”. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038/94 "2005-12-01T12:33:57Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > I feel like I’m reading a big yellow book titled “Pascal’s Wager for Dummies”. \ Well fuckin’ told. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-suicide-bad/333038.md?page=4)