Suicide: An Academic Poll

[mijan]

Because my Psych professor is such a ray of sunshine, he decided to assign us a cheerful topic for a weekend mini-research essay: "What are people's thoughts on suicide

Comments

[vampireanneke]

I'll admit to wanting to die. I wished for it so bad, and considered how from the age of 10 until around 16 (due to my home life/older sister). Sleeping pills were my prime choice. Always with the contemplation was that if I did it, I would go to hell. The fear of going to hell always stumped everything else. I may be half pagan but I still have a very strongly held personal catholic beliefs half to me. I didn't think god/jesus would protect me, but I did want Heaven, and I more so didn't want to go to Hell where I still know my older sister will end up

[who_la_hoop]

I couldn't really do the adjectives! The person I knew who committed suicide did it because he was a middle-aged man with dementia, and he didn't want his wife and family to have the long drawn out suffering that the situation would bring. So for him, I'd say he was brave, self-sacrificing, determined, noble.

But for other situations, the suicide might be a cry for help - not really wanting to die but to want someone to notice them - or out of a mental illness like depression, so the associations there are quite different.

[momebie]

I do want to note, because it doesn't specify in the question, that my answers in number one come from the place of the motivations of the person committing or considering the act and not the understanding or misunderstanding of those motives by people around them. While people outside of you might find your actions selfish or cowardly and not understand how you could feel unloved or alone with them there, that's not the same thing as you considering those motivations as part of the triggers that caused you to attempt or consider the act in the first place.

[mijan]

This is absolutely true. However, what I'm LOOKING for in this poll is what people THINK is true, whether or not it is. I'm looking for first impressions, personal opinions, first-hand observations/thoughts, reflections on the issue, and so on. The nature of the assignment is to talk about "what people think regarding suicide." It's EXTREMELY open-ended (and really an unpleasant topic), and I'm trying to see how people respond to a simple LJ poll, and then go from there.

I really don't want to DO this assignment. I'm just trying to gather some thoughts from a few people so I can write the essay.

[mijan]

No worries. You didn't sound combative, but it sounded like you might have thought that *I* agreed with all of the things I put in the poll, and I just wanted to clarify... not only for you, but for anyone else who might be reading the comments. :)

[acadine11]

Just a thought -- given that discussions about suicide can be potentially triggery for those who (have) experience(d) suicidal thoughts or lost loved ones because of it, would you maybe consider putting your poll behind an lj cut? That way people can read or not read according to their mental health needs.