assisted suicide vs suicide prevention

[Losty]

Despair is not evil. People can’t even help it when they feel despair.

We can help ourselves, and if we can't, God and his appointed guides of the past to the present, can help us.

We cannot will the chemicals in our brains to balance. God cannot either, else people wouldn’t have imbalances in the first place. Medication can help if you find the right one to suit your needs.

[Brian37]

Despair is not evil. People can’t even help it when they feel despair.

We can help ourselves, and if we can't, God and his appointed guides of the past to the present, can help us.

---

Right.  Religion is evil.

Why because it put's some responsibility to mental illness?

Most religious people are taking secular approach. I just don't buy it and in fact, one good reason for me to believe in religion was due to it's approach to mental health which is been forgotten and neglected in this century.

It is very rare that I get truly upset with you. Right now I am. I beg you to stop, because you really do not have any clue about what mental illness is, and it HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with a god by any name existing.

This is extremely important, so please take me seriously on this. Using a crutch is just that, a crutch. It does not address REAL psychology or neurology. ONLY clinical professionals like doctors and psychiatrists and neurologists are qualified to diagnose you or I. Your religion is not a cure. It can help you if that is what you need, but it is in NO WAY a diagnosis or medical procedure or medicine. 

I take this very personally having depression, and having family and friends with even far worse than what I suffer from. 


DO NOT call mental illness "evil". <---- That right there is what pissed me off. It is something nobody likes having but it is NOT evil. It is merely something anyone can learn to cope with, and there is no super natural cause for it.

[Rev. Rye]

Usually when we say we support assisted suicide, it's because someone has a terminal illness, or that they're already old. If it's just depression, and they're still physically young and fit, then we'll work on fixing their psychological problems.

Well, maybe if it's in a sort of prison program that's a voluntary alternative to capital punishment (I've tossed this idea around here a few times before) where a convict voluntarily kills himself because either he has no prospect of leaving prison or if they've seen the error of their ways but their crimes are so horrible they can't redeem themselves (child molestation comes to mind), but that's as far as I'd go.

A lot of the time, suicidal thoughts can be fixed. I recently watched the Ian Curtis biopic Control and it goes into detail about how he couldn't handle the pressures of his newfound stardom, and the crucial part of it was the onset of his epilepsy, which frequently hampered his ability to perform because there was no guarantee he couldn't go through a performance without having a full-blown seizure.





Things are not helped by the fact that understanding of epilepsy and how to treat it was less than optimal, to the extent that 25 years after Ian killed himself, his bassist Peter Hook sent a list of the medications he took to try to keep the epilepsy in check to a modern specialist and he said "Oh my God. This was guaranteed to kill him." Then, on 17 May 1980, he went home and hanged himself. There were a lot of other factors, but imagine what could have been if Ian actually had some proper help.

Also, it should be noted that even Dignitas is okay with suicide prevention for those who could potentially still be saved.

[Mystic]

Will is the most important thing when it comes to mental illness. And yes you can balance your mind, some people heal from depression without meds, but I suggest always taking medications because they help boost back the battery into place.

It will never bring the balance to balance, that's up to you.

---

I been through low ends of bipolar for years where it was major depression.

I been through a lot. I know what it is, probably more then most people.

I am mentally ill still, and the madness hasn't fully subsided.

And yes it's an evil that God will heal if we turn to him.

[brewer]

You have to separate mental reasons from physical reasons when discussing this subject. If it's mental, most individuals have the ability to commit suicide on their own, in most cases no assistance would be needed.

[Mystic]

You have to separate mental reasons from physical reasons when discussing this subject. If it's mental, most individuals have the ability to commit suicide on their own, in most cases no assistance would be needed.

What prevented me would be the stigma and shame it brings to my family. That's it.

And so I will fight to keep such stigma alive.

[Rev. Rye]

As I said earlier, even Dignitas supports suicide prevention, at least as long as the reasons for wanting to off oneself can actually be remedied. And, of course, most people whose problems are purely mental don’t even need people to assist their suicides.

[Brian37]

Will is the most important thing when it comes to mental illness. And yes you can balance your mind, some people heal from depression without meds, but I suggest always taking medications because they help boost back the battery into place.

It will never bring the balance to balance, that's up to you.

---

I been through low ends of bipolar for years where it was major depression.

I been through a lot. I know what it is, probably more then most people.

I am mentally ill still, and the madness hasn't fully subsided.

And yes it's an evil that God will heal if we turn to him.

No sorry MK, while nobody can ultimately tell you how to cope with yourself personally, the fact is that religion IS NOT nor will ever be a replacement for the professionals. If it helps you cope that is on you, but no holy person or or holy book can replace a proper diagnosis or professional support.

[brewer]

You have to separate mental reasons from physical reasons when discussing this subject. If it's mental, most individuals have the ability to commit suicide on their own, in most cases no assistance would be needed.

What prevented me would be the stigma and shame it brings to my family. That's it.

And so I will fight to keep such stigma alive.

You needed assistance to get better, glad you found it. 

I don't think that stigma and shame enter the equation for most that make the attempt.

[Mystic]

I don't care whether they make it legal or not.

What is important to me is religious people keep the stigma and shame alive.

Without that, it will go out of control.

---

What prevented me would be the stigma and shame it brings to my family. That's it.

And so I will fight to keep such stigma alive.

You needed assistance to get better, glad you found it. 

I don't think that stigma and shame enter the equation for most that make the attempt.

I had a plan. Simple. Just take all the meds in the bottle with grapefruit, and that would do it.

I never pulled it off because of the stigma. I know a lot of people who the idea won't cross their mind seriously and it's due to the stigma.

The stigma is good. It got us here where as in the past, there was no meds.