We Need to Destigmatize Suicide

If you are having thoughts about committing suicide or otherwise harming yourself, please call 988 (or 1-800-273-8255) in the U.S. or check this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines for a suicide helpline in your region.

The world is absurd. Life is absurd. I cannot, for the life of me, fathom why the first ever living thing decided that it was a good idea to make more copies of itself thus leading to the evolution of humans (and other species). The only thing that make sense is that life was a complete accident and once that ball got rolling, desire for pleasure (sex) and lack of birth control did the rest. Given that life is ultimately doomed, the origin of life as we know it seems pointless and sad.

Nobody chooses life. It is thrust upon them, often with inconsideration and usually for selfish reasons of the progenitors. I suspect at some point in history when humans gained awareness of the futility of life they may have attempted eliminating the human species by practicing birth control. Particularly if they belonged to the slave/serf/worker class of people. (I was giving humanity too much credit when I wrote this line. It probably was never true.) The powers that be, i.e. rulers and religious orders, conspired to ensure an abundance of servants to make birth control and abortion a sin. (This is probably true but not due to the previous sentence.)

It is perfectly normal then for people to contemplate suicide at some point in their lives. There is, however, no good reason to commit suicide. That is to say, if one thinks that they ought to kill themselves because of jilted love, failed business venture or extreme shame, etc.; those are all invalid reasons to want to end oneself.

To be alive is the only valid reason not to want to continue living. This may seem like a paradox, but I cannot/won't explain it any further.

Given that it is normal for a person to want to end their life, we need to stop treating suicidal thoughts/tendencies as something that is wrong with that person. The inclination for people to treat those with suicidal ideations as maladjusted or ill itself is a cultural disease that we have willingly contracted. It is due to our own fears about death and dying and societal impositions about the sanctity of life that makes us view those with suicidal ideation as somehow being sick.

Rather than trying to treat someone out of suicide, how about we give their contemplation full credit. Euthanasia for terminally ill people is becoming normalized. Let’s realize that life itself is terminal. Even if it wasn’t; even if we could live forever, it is conceivable that a person may not want to do so and end their life before the universe ends it for them.

This is not to say that people should be given the option to end their lives at the first thought of suicide but to rule out false reasons (see above) for wanting to die and to make sure that they have explored every other reason to make their life worth living. This could include supervised volunteer work where a suicidal person can make themselves useful to someone else.

When they have nothing to live for, perhaps living for someone else may help save their life.

This idea is by no means comprehensive and needs to be explored and studied further. As someone who has contemplated (for the right reasons (I think)) suicide, I find it insensitive/infuriating when people think that there must be something wrong with me for doing so.