The Ignorance is Real
I'm sick of people saying suicide is selfish.
Yes, I agree that it is a terrible thing. Although I do have suicidal thoughts every waking moment of every day, I will NEVER tell someone it is okay to kill themselves. However, the reasons people give for believing suicide is selfish are, more often than not, selfish in themselves. For example:
1) Suicide is selfish because you're not thinking of anyone but yourself. Um, no. First of all, pain triumphs over rational thought. If you had a terminal illness, it's impossible not to be focused on the pain, to wish the pain was over and to wish you were dead so the pain can stop. Why can't we extend the same mercy to those with mental illness? And why are we so arrogant to assume that someone's problems are more or less justified for suicide than someone else's?
2) Suicide is selfish because you're leaving behind loved ones. Um, whether I die now or 50 years from now, I'm going to be leaving someone who cares about me behind. Whether it's from suicide, cancer, a heart attack or a car accident, it's not going to lessen the pain. Now, I know there is a unique pain that comes from losing someone to suicide. But I think it's selfish to demand someone to live in spite of mental anquish in order to keep yourself from feeling the same way. It's selfish for someone to trivialize another person's pain because you can't understand it. We focus so much on sparing the loved ones' pain that we ignore the pain that the sufferer experienced. Now people who currently battle suicidal thoughts are given more of a reason to kill themselves because they now believe they are selfish on top of everything else.
3) Suicide is selfish because people often have it worse than the person who killed themselves. Yes, this may be true for someone looking from the outside, but it's more complicated than that. You can see illness, you can see poverty, but you can't see the mind. Everyone has different levels of pain tolerance and coping skills. What's trivial to someone else may be exceedingly difficult for another. I think it's horrible when someone says, "What do you have to be depressed about?" It implies that you're not entitled to your own feelings.
4) Suicide is selfish because your life is not your own, but God's. I can't argue with this one, because I can't lead people astray from God. Obviously, this one isn't going to register to everyone. But this is the only reason that hesitates me because I'm terrified of God's judgment. But if the fear of God's wrath is the only thing that is keeping people like me alive, then we have a major problem. Yet when Christians comment on suicide, they are quick to say, "You're going to hell. You're not a true Christian. You don't have enough faith." Nothing about God's love and mercy. I would hope God would welcome His own child, by suicide or not, to heaven, but now I'm not so sure.
I'm really angry because I was reading this article about suicide and the comments below were just so nasty and crude. I was close to tears. Like I said, I'm not trying to condone suicide. It just hurts to hear those things because it hits so close to home…