Maureen Dowd Gets to the heart of the Pervert Priest Scandal

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Apparently you've never been severely depressed and suicidal, then. It may seem like an easy choice to you, either kill yourself or don't kill yourself. But the reality is a lot more complicated. You can't even begin to imagine the agonizing internal struggle that goes on in the mind of a suicidal person. Often there's a small part of them that is not sure about this and wants to be saved, wants help, while consciously they desperately want their suffering to end, so they may choose a method without a 100% success rate. And that's just one example.

Depressed and suicidal? I've beed so, though perhaps not so severely as you. But it really is easy to kill yourself. Hell: I spend much of my time when doing dangerous work specifically trying to *not* die. It really is easy to just step to the left two paces and be smashed between two full totes. It's easy to stab a knife straight through the throat. It's easy to fall off a building. I think it's more people's aversion to pain than anything else that stops these suicides

If you actually want to die: make darn sure you're going to succeed. If you don't want to die: don't try. Death is final, a half-measured approach is only going to hurt a lot.

When I attempted suicide, I swallowed 700 sleeping pills. You think that would do it. But my mother came home unexpectedly after an hour, and found me barely alive. So technically, I failed at suicide. But that doesn't minimize the fact that my suffering was so great that I saw no other option. Maybe the tiny part of me that thought 'maybe I shouldn't die at 17' is what kept me from jumping off a building (not to mention the paralysis and brain damage I'd be left with if I somehow survived such a 'serious' attempt, consequences which I desperately wanted to avoid).

Severe brain damage is death. I certainly would have thought that 700 sleeping pills would kill a person (or permanently damage them at least), though that is not the manner I would have chosen myself. I'm mildly cheerful that you failed though

Sorry, I just had to respond to this, it's an issue very close to home. Please try not to judge the depressed and suicidal unless you've been in their shoes. It's the closest thing to hell on Earth and there are no easy decisions or black-and-white explanations.

I've been in their shoes to an extent, but I always will view failure poorly (especially that of myself). I am not judging people who fail to commit suicide because they are depressed/suicidal... i am judging them because they failed... and failed something so easily accomplished as death.