> Some have said this is a selfish viewpoint, that I should stay around longer for the ones I love. But the reverse is true, it is selfish of those that love to demand quantity over quality, especially when it slowly strips away the very being of a person.
I totally agree with this, but I have a hard time seeing why this logic shouldn't also be applied to people with extreme chronic depression that doesn't respond to treatment. How can we demand that someone live in for a decade or more while the very chemical structure of their brain won't let them be happy?
Of course, suicide shouldn't be chosen lightly or irrationally, and it's hard for a depressed person to rationally know when they've exhausted all their options. It may be outside the capabilities of a depressed person to rationally choose suicide.
But I have my doubts that suicide is always irrational. If I were considering committing suicide, I'd want to be able to approach my friends with that decision and know they would help me make the right decision for my situation, not repeat positivist rhetoric and call me selfish. Even if suicide really is the wrong choice for someone, I'm not convinced that the "suicide is always selfish" narrative helps that person. Instead, I think it might discourage them from talking about it, which makes everything worse.
EDIT: I'm not suicidal, not depressed, not even temporarily sad. I've just been close to some people who have been depressed for decades, and I feel like the usual narrative around often does them more harm than good.
I totally agree with this, but I have a hard time seeing why this logic shouldn't also be applied to people with extreme chronic depression that doesn't respond to treatment. How can we demand that someone live in for a decade or more while the very chemical structure of their brain won't let them be happy?
Of course, suicide shouldn't be chosen lightly or irrationally, and it's hard for a depressed person to rationally know when they've exhausted all their options. It may be outside the capabilities of a depressed person to rationally choose suicide.
But I have my doubts that suicide is always irrational. If I were considering committing suicide, I'd want to be able to approach my friends with that decision and know they would help me make the right decision for my situation, not repeat positivist rhetoric and call me selfish. Even if suicide really is the wrong choice for someone, I'm not convinced that the "suicide is always selfish" narrative helps that person. Instead, I think it might discourage them from talking about it, which makes everything worse.
EDIT: I'm not suicidal, not depressed, not even temporarily sad. I've just been close to some people who have been depressed for decades, and I feel like the usual narrative around often does them more harm than good.