Terminally ill 16-year-old takes his anti-suicide campaign to RTE

pone2012 wrote: »

i have no sympathy for people who refuse to get help. thats like complaining about being hungry with a fridge full of food.

Ah yes, Irish mental health services, so flush with funding & resources. Lying around just waiting for someone to come and own up to their mental health issues so they can fix them up and throw them back into society.

What incredible naïveté and ignorance.
I find it astounding that someone can remain so completely clueless & dispassionate towards those who suffer from mental illness and how the human mind works, while studying that very subject at university level. And what's more, with a view to furthering your studies with what I assume is intention to eventually work in the field? Scary.

It's not your job as a Psychology student to judge the actions of people who suffer from suicidal thoughts. It's your job to try to understand what happens in their brain & resulting behaviours to get them there, with the hope of helping & improving their condition. You don't help a suicidal person by guilt tripping, berating and laying blame on them. Surely you know that?

I'm only on page 2 of 15 and I think I've heard / read enough. Fair enough it might be crass and harsh but the truth hurts. There's no sugared-coated-way of saying this but the fact is suicidal people do have a choice to live. They mightn't feel like they do but, they do! No matter what way ya look at it, the only time that I'm aware of, that you can't choose to live is being terminally ill. That's it. There is no argument here. If you're suicidal ya might feel like you're given a death sentence alright, but it's not and never going to be the same as being terminally ill, because it's not a definite that you will die although you might feel like you want to. There is a chance although maybe slight, that you'll survive, that you'll come through, that you'll, (gasp!) even yes even come out the other side! It's not the same at all. That's all there is to it. That's what he is highlighting. He doesn't have those "possibilities."

As for wading-in to take insult to him just stating facts as they are, albeit by default in-sensitive, he's not making a choice to be voluntarily in-sensitive, it's the nature of the topic not him. :pac: So put the dummy back in! Although he certainly has had his fair share of life's experiences valid for one lifetime.

I think it's rather un-fair to be stereotyping him just because of his age. He is basing his intentions that he is highlighting on his life and in-voluntary lifestyle so far, regardless of whether he has sixteen years behind him or sixty. Why judge him just because he is ONE teen?

Even families of people who committed suicide say there was absolutely no need for them to do that, and although it's a horrible thing to have to say; - the thing is, there wasn't a need for them to at all. He mentions, that not by choice, he's now having to mull-over, look-after, tidy-up, take care of his affairs, - whatever way ya want to phrase it, for when he's not around, where-as someone suicidal is mulling over their choices to continue on with life or end it, even despite leaving everyone and everything behind them. Two different things. Families say if only they had any idea how much there was no necessity whatsoever for them to go and do something like that. Because sadly, there wasn't / isn't! (It's that they think there is. Perhaps a topic for another day.)

So, no, no cause for argument. I'm not dissing depressed people in any way at all, heck I hate existence myself! BUT, It has *nothing* got to do with him, that the choosing to live bit is the toughie for suicidal people who have a crappy life and don't feel able to go on and don't want to - maybe that is what should be discussed, and the fact remains that the choice is still there for them. It's not there for him. He's not mulling over his choices. He is mulling over the next stage what happens next after / when he's gone. A suicidal person may feel they can't go on, but, someone who actually can't, is someone with a terminal illness.

pone2012 wrote: »

You should realize that was my personal opinion and not a ''professional one''

Personal opinions on mental health issues in society & within the health care services are at the crux of this whole thread.

If someone inherently believes that suicide is "selfish" and yet it's their job to study, research, help those suffering & progress the mental health services provided to these people - then that's scary. It shows a distinctly rigid, dispassionate, closed mind towards a sensitive subject when the very opposite is needed.

beks101 wrote: »

Personal opinions on mental health issues in society & within the health care services are at the crux of this whole thread.

If someone inherently believes that suicide is "selfish" and yet it's their job to study, research, help those suffering & progress the mental health services provided to these people - then that's scary. It shows a distinctly rigid, dispassionate, closed mind towards a sensitive subject when the very opposite is needed.

in fairness, that is not the job of someone who takes a few modules in Psychology.

Kallie Crashing Bongo wrote: »

It's just so naive. Like that silly 'suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem' thing. As if people decide to kill themselves because someone put an empty milk carton back in the fridge. By the time someone gets to the point of killing themselves, I think things are already pretty damn horrendous for them.

Saying things like they should 'sleep on their issues' is just condescending. As is saying that 'nobody's problems are that bad' and 'there's a long way to go before you get to where he is'. How on earth does he know what other people have been through? He has no right to judge others like that. Terminal illness is terrible but so are lots of other situations. It's not a bloody competition.

I don't see it as condescending at all. Sure it needs all the attention and directing and highlighting that it can possibly get, certainly not being hidden away to have better services and care available for Mental Health. Well he is in a similar situation to know what it's like. Of course other situations are horrendous, but it's still the case that it's not and never going to be "as bad" as the DEFINITE death of a terminal illness. There is a way out that isn't ending life. I don't think anyone said it's a competition. What needs the momentum here is development and help and assistance that the focus be on choosing to live.

Kallie Crashing Bongo wrote: »

No, he's bitter and angry that other people 'choose' to end their life when he can't choose to continue living his and is trying to guilt such people into feeling grateful that they don't have a terminal illness. It is basically just another form of 'hey, why don't ya just snap out of it, weakling? I have it SO much worse than you and I carry on'. The same thing most depressed people have heard over and over. I understand why the kid might be feeling this way, but he should NEVER have been given a platform to air his ill-informed views. It's extremely damaging and dangerous and shows a total lack of understanding and empathy regarding mental illness.

He does have it much worse. I think you are underestimating just how hopeless and grim terminal illness is for someone that wants to live. They have no hope, not even on their good days. Death is a certainty. The same does not apply to depression.