If Suicide Were Not An Option...
What would you do if suicide were not an option? I mean if you want to kill yourself wouldn't running away be a better alternative or possibly trying some activity that you have always wanted to try but were afraid of doing. I mean you can always kill yourself later..if it doesn't work out, right?
So, what would you do if suicide were not an option. Would you rob a bank, disappear, run off to a foreign country? Are you afraid things won't work out? So what, they aren't working out now are they?
If they were you wouldn't be thinking about suicide. Can anything be worse than wanting to permanently end your story. At least with an alternative course you have options. Suicide leaves no options.
If you are at the bottom and there is nothing left to lose then why not take a chance and do something crazy, or fun or adventurous (as long as you aren't hurting anyone else of course). I mean you don't want to pull a Walter White and ruin over a hundred people's lives just because you are cornered and see no way out. The only thing worse and more permanent than suicide is murder/suicide. I hope you can see that.
If you are so desperate that death looks appealing then the fear of death is blunted. If one is no longer afraid to die then that opens the door to a myriad of possibilities.
An Example from the show Breaking Bad
Let's take a look at “Breaking Bad's” Walter White. If you are unfamiliar with the story Walter White is diagnosed with cancer. He is an underappreciated high school chemistry teacher whose 40 year old wife is pregnant and he has a special needs son. He is desperate, he is a desperate man. He doesn't want to leave his family without funds so he decides to start cooking meth to make money. Suicide is not an option for him and he has no fear because he has already been given a death sentence.
Haven't we all been given death sentences? From the moment of birth we begin to die and every single one of us is marching towards death 100%..no escape. So since suicide is not an option and death is coming fast he takes a course of action without consideration of fear. He does the only thing he knows how to do to get to his goal of raising enough money for his family due to his impending death. He starts cooking meth.
Now, I am not advocating Walter White's course of action because for one thing it falls into the category of murder/suicide but if we can glean a bit from this fictional story we can gather the gold while disposing of the dross..sort of speak.
Since suicide was not an option and fear a waste of precious time Walter White chose action and courage. He really had no choice at all because inaction would have brought about the worst of all scenarios, in his mind, and that was leaving his family destitute and fear was waste of time, remember the clock is ticking and not just for Walter White but for us too.
Are there things worse than death?
You may argue that there are things worse than death and I would agree with you. However, if you decide to kill yourself you will never know if that is true for you, because we don't know what we don't know. We don't know what is around the bend, we don't know what we will learn or who we will meet and how that might change our perspectives and lives. How many people have met one person who made all the difference in their lives? How many people were given alternative perspectives and that changed everything? How many people's lives were changed by one piece of information? We are finite beings, we don't even know what tomorrow will bring let alone a week, a month, a year or a lifetime.
So yes there are things worse than death, but there are many more things that are better than death. Furthermore, living in “action with courage” even for a short time can enhance whatever time we have left on this earth. How many of us stall, pause or crap out because of fear? How many of us don't really live our lives to the fullest because we never pull the trigger? No wonder so many want to commit suicide when we are living half-assed lives full of fear and inaction. What are we afraid of losing? Most of our lives are not worth holding onto in the first place. They are dull, listless, full of fear and loneliness, never really discovering our true potential..like Walter White, like most of us. We live as if we have all the time in the world. Time to waste, time to decide, time to squander but unlike money time cannot be recovered..once lost it is lost forever. So live your life as if suicide were not an option, with a healthy dose of action and courage and see if your life is not enhanced immediately!
Does this article shine the light on why suicide should not be an option?
© 2019 Brie Hoffman
Comments
Brie Hoffman, I respect your point of view that suicide should never be an option for anyone in any circumstances, however, for myself, if I am in the situation where I have a terminal illness like ALS or something similar, I reserve the right to end it a bit earlier. And I will leave other people to make their own decision on that. On the other hand for someone young, it's a terrible tragedy and I agree with T that many of these people are totally self absorbed and do not realise the pain they will cause to those they leave behind. I remember back when I was about 15, the idea flitted through my head occasionally, from the point of view of being annoyed about something and "that would show them", without thinking about the fact that I would no longer be around to see them feel sorry! I think there needs to be a lot more help for young people and even older ones, to help them find ways to work through problems they may have and find solutions that do not involve ending it all. I read a case recently of a teenager who was allowed to commit assisted suicide because of a situation that happened to her as a child and that she could not overcome. Her family knew how hard life was for her but I can't help feeling there should have been some form of help for her to overcome the trauma, rather than suicide.
- AUTHOR
I respectfully disagree. I think that idea is a slippery slope to making people feel as if they "should" commit suicide.
- AUTHOR
Well, the article was written to appeal to people who might shop the idea around in their heads now and again. I think almost everyone has had thoughts like that from time to time. I was/am hoping to push that person to the realization that if they are thinking that way then they might as well think this way..by taking the thoughts to their natural conclusion.
Suicide is not an option or perhaps should not be an option if you are healthy and able to work. For some people, their final illness is terminal and will lead to great suffering. I think those people should be allowed the dignity of choosing their early time of death, if they want.
Your article is interesting and I like your take to imagine suicide is not an option which should work with a normal rational healthy person.
However, suicides are not in a normal rational state of mind. It’s hard to imagine what drives people to commit suicide but it isn’t hard to imagine they are not in a normal rational, healthy, state of mind.
So you may think that the causes of suicide are schizophrenia Bipolar disorder, Borderline personality Eating disorders, Traumatic Stress, Substance Abuse and Impulsivity, the loss of jobs and relationships, Loss or Fear of Loss, Hopelessness, Chronic Pain and Terminal Illnesses, Belief Your Life is a Burden to Others, Social Isolation, A Cry for Help...
But guess what, most normal, healthy, rational people experience all of these things without resorting to suicide. So these things must not be the cause.
IMHO tge cause is self absorption. People who commit suicide are so self absorbed that they lose the ability to cope with their problems whatever they are, they don’t give a second thought to how or who their suicide will affect, whatever their pain or depression all they can think of is themselves and ending their pain, real or imagined.
To approach suicide as you suggest in your article requires the person to be selfless and anyone who is seriously contemplating suicide is not selfless, they are self absorbed.
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