it seems every suicide is blamed on mental illness. they say it in a patronizing way “oh we need more treatment for mental illness” and “oh we need to end the stigma of mental illness” but they’re actually feeding into the ‘stigma’ even more by blindly lumping all suicides together under the banner of sickess so they can sweep it under the rug.
the people who were burning to death in the world trade center and chose to jump to their deaths instead… is that mental illness? of course not. how about a 77 year old who’s suffering an incurable painful disease and eats a bullet.. is that mental illness? of course not.
now lets wade into murky water. how about a single mother of 6 children, one is severely disabled and requires constant supervision, deep financial troubles, no professional skills or talents that would lead to any job opportunities better than answering phones at minimum wage… she takes her disabled daughter on a camping trip… they both turn up dead. Murder/suicide scream the newspapers. Mental illness. there it is again those 2 magic words that allow society to remove the offender from the herd.
but anyone with half a brain can see that she was just as trapped as the jumper on the world trade center, or the 77 year old terminal patient. or you or me.
not all of us are mentally ill, whatever the fuck that means anyway. it’s just a label so society can feel like the problem is someone else’s. nothing to see here, just another mentally ill person. tell you what, to make things easier why don’t we just call it leprosy.
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Isn’t it just so very frustrating, to live with the thought “they were never depressed and they killed themselves”, so what exactly went wrong with them.? I feel like people do love a puzzle. There’s so many things wrong with this world… It’s money-ridden, it’s health-absorbing and happiness-depriving.
Your point is very valid. It is no one else’s problem. I played with a reverse option in my mind. What if I was planning to take my life and someone beats me to it. Everyone would be like “Oh, that poor young soul was taken from life too quickly, shame on that murderer”. That would turn away all of my misery, that I’ve felt over the years. Suicide is a very drastic statement, that will never ever leave anyone’s head. Hopefully someone understands what I mean…
that’s exactly it, people want a quick answer to the puzzle and “depression” is the 1 size fits all answer to the suicide puzzle.
interesting thought about being killed before you can kill yourself, i think your scenario might’ve played out in real life last week. there was a news story about a girl who was killed by a random bullet in Philadelphia. well not random, some psycho fired into a bar and it got her right through the head. the interesting thing is i get the feeling that this girl was very depressed or maybe suicidal. beautiful girl but no pictures of her smiling (we know the look) and her family talked about how she was just starting to get her life together. anyway what if she was suicidal but this random psycho beat her to it. just what you said “poor young soul was taken from life too quickly, shame on that murderer” (they caught him btw). but maybe for her it was like winning the lottery, instant death before she knew what hit her, and no guilt that comes with suicide. people love a quick answer and they got an open and shut case.
Totally hear you on that second part, yep. I imagine that a lot, too.
If you are the mother, I’m sorry. I agree with you. I’m in the diagnosed and being treated camp. I doubt I would’ve been suicidal if I were healthy. But no matter how happy or stable I manage to become, I’ve never really reached a point where I thought living was better than dying. After all these years, I feel like suicide is nearly spiritual to me. The stuff life keeps throwing at us doesn’t shake me. It’s all part of a game I can stop playing anytime. I’m playing to indulge the cosmic toddler, and for hope I can achieve what I think will make life worth it.
thanks for your reply, no I’m not the mother, it’s another news story from minnesota or something. i spend a lot of time looking up suicides because i see myself in a lot of the stories.
like you said life keeps throwing things at us and some of us get trapped. literally no way out except death. so is suicide as insane as society thinks? I figure it’s just like walking out of a job that you hate. may not be the best move but it gets you out of an unbearable situation.
holy shit
fire fire! Fire on deck, we’ve got hot facts here!