Requiring Treatment for the Mentally ill (State laws)

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Quote:
Sadly reden it is this type of attitude that actually encourages suicides. True depression is a disease; it is disordered thinking. So even though the person may truly have every intention of dying they may get it wrong. They may not know which drugs will actually kill them, they may not know that mixing drugs and alcohol can sometimes save you by making you vomit. They may not get the dosages right. Then some one tells them that not only are they sick, but they FAILED at killing themselves. So add failure to the pain. Trying to treat them then has an added issue.

I once knew a young man who threw himself out of a ninth story window and lived. Does the fact that he lived mean he didn't "mean" it? Yes, many attempts are cries for help. That does not mean they should be taken any less seriously. Most people who quietly go about killing themselves are not suffering from true depression. It is usually something else all together often situational, layered with depression or grief. The kind of "determination" you speak of is missing in depressed people. When one has suffered for a very long time they can develop that type of determination.

That is also why many depressed people kill themselves AFTER starting meds. Prior to starting on the meds they cannot get themselves together enough to plan or carry out their own suicide. Once medicated they clear up enough to plan and not enough to see any light at the end of the tunnel.

I have dealt with wonderful people in intractable pain and I have dealt with people whose illness simply made them monsters. As usual, it is the one size fits all problem. No one label works no one treatment works.

 

[redhen]

Sometimes folks really DO just want to not live anymore. They feel its their life and choice they are just done suffering.
Its not always a CHEMICAL depression thing that meds will help.
There are SITUATIONS in peoples lives that may make them want to end it.
I can guarantee you that meds wouldnt have helped my grandfather. He was tired of suffering and knew what was coming for him in life.
Meds would not have changed the outcome.

Honestly.. If i REALLY wanted to not live anymore...(like if i had terminal cancer or something) and i wanted to go to sleep peacefully and not suffer anymore.... its MY choice and people need to respect that and not say i need some pills to make me all better...

..



As for myself.. i honestly cant understand the want to kill oneself... heck..i want to live forever, i'm scared to die.
Some folks arent scared to die.. they just want their pain to end.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Sorry, redhen, research proves you wrong - dangerously wrong. The majority of people who commit suicide do so because they are inadequately treated for depression. As 'whats in my yard' said.

Because of our attitudes and prejudices, we 'accept' and 'understand' suicide when someone is old, or when they have a terminal illness. That does not change what's really going on.

That also does NOT mean we are right about what's going on.

Statistics prove that entirely wrong.

Example. Our relative committed suicide when he suspected he had dementia. Everyone threw up their hands and said, 'Oh well then! Now we understand! OF COURSE he killed himself! We have no problem with that!'

No, actually, we did not buy that. We DID NOT buy it that that makes it 'okay' and we were not 'fine with it', even though a number of other people saw fit to slap us on the back and declare, 'WELL! THAT's OK THEN!'

He had an extremely mild, treatable, slow acting form of dementia. He actually was looking at 20 years or more of very slow progression. He was coping fine as long as he was in a familiar situation, and he was going to for many, many years to come.

Our family was DELIGHTED to have him move next door and to assist him whenever he needed it, even though he was going to need very little help for a very long time. We were thrilled at the idea that he would have a long time to set down his history and all the amazing things he had witnessed in his life and we felt doing that would give him a 'mission' to fulfill. He was physically very fit, and we were also looking forward to hiking and birdwatching with him. He had encyclopedic knowledge that his illness wasn't going to come near touching for decades.

Instead of doing that, he decided to off himself.

His condition is also, about 100% of the time, accompanied by depression. He killed himself because he was depressed. NOT because 'dementia made it a good idea'.

Our society thinks old age is a 'tragedy' and terminal illness is a 'tragedy' and it's 'okay' to commit suicide for those.

Our society also believes that mental illness is a 'tragedy' and it's 'okay' to commit suicide for those.

We could not be wronger. Because of our biases, we 'generalize' and assume that the majority of suicides are people 'deciding' to end their life because 'they have to' because they are 'not having a good time'.

We get all noble and tragic and then say, 'but for a kid, no it's not ok for them to kill themselves, we have to STOP THEM. They have no right to end a young, undamaged life because they got jilted or flunked a class'.

But we think a 'damaged life', that's 'okay' to kill.

Bang it up a little, fine, let's get rid of those guys. They're a bother anyway. Expensive to take care of and burdensome. Let's let them get on the iceberg, and let the penguins push them off. They're not workin' for a living anyway.

It's a fundamental, basic, profound and permeating misunderstanding of what suicide is about for the majority of people who do it.