Would you consider suicide selfish?

BeerWolf wrote: »

More selfish to deny, for example, someone seeking euthanasia to end their suffering from whatever debilitate disease they might have.

Religious people would rather have those people live an existence of misery with their faux morality.


People committing suicide whom have people that rely on them, however, can be seen as selfish. Such as a parent leaving their child behind.

SoundsRight wrote: »

Oh, we should be rejoicing when loved ones kill themselves, shall we?

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Well in fairness the "basis of Christianity" is less giving your life to save others and more to do with a single man giving his life to become a scapegoat for their sins.Which is quite a different dynamic. Self sacrifice for others is something I find can be very moral. The idea of scapegoating however - not so much.

Where religions do not help - whichever of the 30odd thousand branches of Christianity or any other religion does this - is where they suggest that suicide or even assisted dying is something that sends the soul hell-bound or has them die in some state of sin. That kind of teaching is either going to prolong the suffering of those who otherwise wish to die - or exacerbate the suffering of those left behind when someone else dies. Neither of which is very helpful at all and I feel for anyone who is suffering under those beliefs.

Conclusion

Religion plays a protective role against suicide in a majority of settings where suicide research is conducted. However, this effect varies based on the cultural and religious context. Therefore, public health professionals need to strongly consider the current social and religious atmosphere of a given population when designing suicide prevention strategies.

Results

Religion as a Protective Factor Against Suicide

Religiosity has been shown to be associated with reduced risk of suicidality (Dervic et al.2004; Lizardi et al. 2007; Stack 1983). For example, suicide rates in religious countries arelower than suicide rates in secular countries (Breault 1993; Dervic et al. 2004; Stack 1983).

Furthermore, intensity of religious commitment has been shown to be related to suicidal behaviouraviors (Nelson 1977). These findings are not specific to particular religious denomi-nations (Dervic et al. 2004; Lizardi et al. 2007; Stack 1983).

Moral and religious objections to suicide have a unique association with suicidalbehavior. The life-saving beliefs associated with religious commitment may protect againstsuicide (Dervic et al. 2004; Lizardi et al. 2007; Koenig et al. 2001; Neeleman et al. 1997;Stack 1983). Studies indicate that individuals with low moral and religious objections tosuicide are more likely to have a lifetime history of suicide attempt (Dervic et al. 2004;Lizardi et al., 2007; Neeleman et al. 1997; Stack 1983). Individuals with higher moral andreligious objections to suicide perceive more reasons for living.

The protective role of religiosity includes a number of mechanisms. Most religions havestrong sanctions against suicide; thus, those individuals who report stronger commitment tothose religions would be less likely to resort to suicide. In addition to condoning suicide,involvement in organized religions provides the opportunity to develop an extended sup-port network in congregation members and clergy, which has been shown to be a protectivefactor against suicidality (Cheng et al. 2000; Gould et al.1996; Greening and StoppelbeinJ Relig Health (2009) 48:332–341 333123
2002; Koenig et al. 2001; Mann 2002; Szanto et al. 2003). Religiosity has also been shownto be associated with lower levels of aggression and hostility (Koenig et al. 2001; Maloneet al. 1995; Mann et al. 2005; Oquendo et al. 2000) which have been consistently shown tobe related to suicidal behavior. Additionally, many religions proscribe elicit behaviors suchas substance abuse (Hilton et al. 2002) and smoking (Martin et al. 2003) which have anestablished relationship to suicide. Thus, high levels of religiosity could have an indirectprotective effect on suicide via the prohibition of substance use (Hilton et al. 2002).Further, the motivation to commit suicide involves considerable ambivalence, and suicidalindividuals often experience an internal struggle between wanting to live and wanting todie (Shneidman and Farberow 1957). Given that the moral objections to suicide arefounded in traditional religious beliefs (Linehan et al. 1983), religious values and optimismmay be important considerations for many individuals contemplating suicide (Linehanet al. 1983) and may serve to positively influence the decision to live (Pinto et al. 1998).Further studies with more comprehensive assessment of religiosity are needed to clarify therelationship between suicidality and religiosity.

Fifty grades of shay. wrote: »

That's a tough one. You must be at your wits end.
Hard time for questions, but do you think the help with mental issues provided by the HSE for people like your son is adequate?

up for anything wrote: »

No. Medicate and put them out the door to be supported in the community but unless the person buys into the support offered by the various services they may as well send them straight to the morgue. He also has a benzo addiction. He'd been clean for three months until one of his best friends killed himself at the end of January but he felt he needed them again to cope with the funeral and heart break of it. I think then he thought he couldn't go through detoxing again and dealing with his anxiety.. he doesn't reckon much on counselling etc. The psych gave him other meds for that which are just as bloody bad as the **** he was buying off the street.

He needs some place where they can keep him safe and will help him deal with his addiction and his anxiety like a rehab but he says he won't go back. How do I keep him alive until something clicks in his head and he sees that he can overcome all of this and have a good life? Right now... he is hopeless in the truest sense of the word.




I too am pretty much hopeless. Yesterday morning someone asked me what was the best that I could hope for him. My answer was that he'd be found dead sooner rather than later to minimise the torture and torment his head is filled with. He always say, "Mummy, you don't know what's in my head." And I don't. He's only 21.