Hi.

Honestly, from what you have written, I gather no one here can talk you out of doing what you are set on doing. I recently put up a thread on an amazing man with no arms and no legs (who also thought of suicide at the age of eight), because he didn't want to be a burden on his family.

That man is now an adult and he travels extensively as a motivational speaker helping THOUSANDS of the disabled and the non-disabled. He even made me laugh when he played music with his little flipper foot. He has SOME sense of humor.

He made the young people in the room, laugh and cry. He explained his way of thinking, his belief system (this is what I think got him to the point where he is today).

He found a purpose for his life. Not a reason for being disabled, but a purpose for his existence.

We all have purpose. Some don't find it until we are older than usual. But I think everyone has a purpose.

We just need to find what that purpose is and what we can do with it.

I wish you well on your journey to whatever you decide is in your best interest.

I can only hope it's to continue to exist, to reach out, to make someone smile, to give someone a compliment.

TO LIVE!!!

As Spock used to say

Live Long and Prosper!!

and yeah, I GREW UP ON STAR TREK!!! And I try to use humor every single day.

lol

Melody

Hello, Melody: Thanks for your latest contribution.

Yes, I watched your post on the man without limbs. Such people make the unimaginable real, actual. He's onto something profound: you can get away with doing things in a funny way which might cause riots if stated in a serious essay.

"I think everybody has a purpose." I do, too. I also think that at 66, my purpose may be behind me -- although right now, as I write these words, I sense another purpose emerging: help people see that taking one's own life and suicide are not necessarily the same thing.

You note, "I gather no one here can talk you out of doing what you are set on doing." I wonder ... is one of the differences between taking one's own life and suicide PRECISELY that in the former, there is indeed nothing you can talk them out of, whereas in the latter -- say a teenager sitting on the ledge of a building -- there is the material there to talk them down? "Talk them out of" implies misplaced emotions, mistaken ideas. Can it be that somebody can take their own life and have well-founded emotions and mature, rational ideas? Is that possible?

Suicide is a "beast" -- I agree with neurotalk members on that point. But what about "taking one's own life" due to an incurable disease and increasing weakness and constant discomfort and/or pain?

Hi.

I absolutely see your point. There is a MAJOR difference between having a terminal painful illness, and a teenager suffering angst and thinking "oh woe is me, she doesn't love me anymore, my life is meaningless" BIG DIFFERENCE.

It brings to mind a very good film by the name of Soylent Green. I don't know if you've heard of it, or seen it but it brings up what a person might be able to do (in a far distant future society), when Euthanasia might be legal.

In the film Edward G. Robinson is a very old, wise man who is helping Charlton Heston discover the secret of WHAT IS SOYLENT GREEN?

But in the film, there is this big building where people can go and take that journey that they are determined to take.

It's probably up on youtube.

The way they explain it is that the elderly or the terminally ill, can walk into a center and they can achieve their goals in a beautiful, peaceful, pain-free manner.

I was always moved by the scene where Charlton Heston arrives just in time to be with Edward G. Robinson as he exits his existence. I remember saying 'I wonder if our world will ever allow this to happen".

Of course, this does not exist at present. Perhaps some other countries have this,but I've never heard of it.

I don't think people who have a religion, well I don't believe ANY religion would condone this kind of ending.

Maybe SOME DAY down the road, this might happen, but in our present society we have pain meds, hospice and whatever we need to do.

Just know, whatever you do decide to do, I wish you God speed.

You sound like a brilliant man who has given this a lot of thought.

What's my purpose in life at the moment? To keep reading posts and continue to learn.

I have learned more since I hit 60 than I EVER learned when I was younger.

I'm like a completely different human being and my brain is like a little sponge and I want to absorb everything.

I'm not religious whatsoever but I am spiritual. I believe in positive energy and not in negative energy.

So keep posting, you have much to teach us.

Melody

Hi Melody

Quote from you

I absolutely see your point. There is a MAJOR difference between having a terminal painful illness, and a teenager suffering angst and thinking "oh woe is me, she doesn't love me anymore, my life is meaningless" BIG DIFFERENCE


Anyone considering taking their life.......... Is in my humble opinion a tragedy ......the above analogy is rather harsh in the way it defines the act/thought of suicide to only be comprehensible by a more mature mind........sadly the act of suicide amongst teenagers is rife in the UK 2003 totalled 5755 .................And i would hesitate to guess quite a few may have been feeling . 'woe is me'

mountains and molehills......................whatever age or gender....creed or colour.....................................whats a huge dilemma to one is a mere drop in the ocean for another............



Please lets all be aware there are many people who read this forum.......and when it comes to SUICIDE...............IT DOES NOT DICRIMINATE ON A PERSONS AGE OR INTELECTUAL BACKGROUND...........It justs lures you just the same

David

in no way said to offend ......just stating an opinion

Thanks David...best we start using the trigger icon...

I agree.................

plus this is a huge subject .................in all of its connotations

hence Tom.................. a change of Avatar is required from elephant to MAMOUTH

David

Hello, David: Thanks for yours. Your new avatar looks raring to go. Where, will that's the question. They're saying now that climate change killed off the mamouths. If so, then, it was one degree at a time over thousands of years.

I don't think anybody here advocates suicide. Please note in the neurotalk instructions that illegal acts are not to be encouraged -- and suicide is illegal. Indeed, I rigorously oppose it for that young person just out of college, who is in good health but unemployed and can't find a job, whose parents divorce, etc. (Exactly my circumstances, by the way). Yes, if that person willingly kills himself, he commits suicide. Again, though, not everybody who kills himself or herself commits suicide, such as the people who jumped to their deaths from the burning Twin Towers. What are we to say to or about such people? Don't do it? Don't jump?

I also agree with you that ANY self-imposed death is a tragedy. I worked in a large county hospital as a college student, and saw some amazing cases. It was there that I started thinking that someone who physically suffers and has no chance (as far as anybody knows) of getting better, who "takes his own life," who "lets go," has not committed some sort of sin or should be legally punished. I will never forget going to the men's room, washing my hands, looking down and seeing ... a pool of blood flow from someone in a locked stall. A patient was cutting his wrists with a razor blade. I remember thinking, My God -- THERE MUST BE SOME WAY TO STOP THIS SORT OF THING!!!! A human being, reduced to that... i still have that same thought today, over 40 years later.

You didn't offend me in any way. I don't see anything wrong with what I said. I am obviously against suicide for ANY reason.

And believe me I know what I'm talking about because 8 years go I was on the phone speaking with a rep on a suicide hotline trying to get someone, ANYBODY to my son's apartment (in another state) because he kept saying he wanted to kill himself. He was 20. He was depressed. (or so I thought)

I finally convinced someone on the other end to send a crisis team to his apartment only to find him perfectly fine, laughing and over whatever mood he was in.

I know what's it like to hear your son say "I am going to kill myself", then to be up at 3 a.m. trying to convince someone at the other end of the phone to take me seriously. One suicide hotline volunteer actually had the audacity to tell me "we don't who you are, you could be a hitman or something".

My son did this 5 night in a row. I remember moving furniture around because I thought I would have family members over the next day to mourn my son.

Five nights in a row, I did the suicide hotline thing because I had to take him seriously, didn't I??? Five nights they found him fine. They flagged him in their system as a malingerer.

He thought it was funny. I do not, have not, and never will find this funny at all.

It practically destroyed me and my husband. My son cried suicide in 26 cities, getting off buses, calling 911 and saying he would kill himself, just so a crisis team would pick him up and give him a place to stay. He always got picked up. He told me "hey, whatever works"

Went through this for a long time.

I no longer go through this. I will not.

I just came on this forum to give support, to engage in serious discussion and really, if I offended anyone with my analogy, it was not my intent.

I think you know this.

Melody

Yes, many people read this site. I understand that for many just talking about the word suiside is bad. However I believe talking about it is better than letting it fester just below the surface. I am doing just fine in life right now, but I have been to the darker side of the issue. When my health declines to the point that having life in an unforgiveable state of cronic illiness, you can bet I won't be the one hanging on with multipal tubes keeping me alive. I have choice. This isn't about depression, or causes that can be helped, this is about irriversable illness which leaves you in a non-human condition in which life becomes a real hell. I have seen it at the hospital. I am not pleased with what I see. I will know what to do. This is education to me. I intend to live a good long long life if I can. Being prepared for the worst that can happen isn't a bad thing. It is like preparing for a hurricane you know is coming right at you. I hope the moderators of this site will not be upset with me for my opinion, I don't want to rock any boats or anything. I just know for myself only, that joining a compassion minded group was right for me. There is a whole movement in the US to at least touch on the forbidden subject with an open mind. I wish for us all to have good long lives. ginnie

Are you familiar with the organization called COMPASSION & CHOICES? I think you would really be interested in their mission statement. I think you can Google them.