Just curious--What would you have put on the list? Or is the very idea of a list not even relevant? To me those are all rock solid reasons.
But it doesn't really matter how many reasons there are, or even what they are. What matters is that they lead to one decision only: NEVER to commit suicide. This precept overrides all impulse, all despair, all the reasons why suicide may seem like the only way out. This is why medication is so dangerous. A mind under the influence of drugs, legal or illegal, may forget that promise in a rush of emotion. Rules and reasons can help us remember.
I think the idea of a list is irrelevant. Every person needs to find their reason to live, even if it’s just the fear of death itself or the act itself. What works for one person won’t work for another person. Unfortunately some people will never find that reason.
The only thing that kept me from it was the fact that my cousin had killed himself when I was young and I saw the impact on the family. His death saved my life. Had I not lived through that, I wouldn’t be alive today.
Treatment is similar. A treatment that works for one person won’t work for another. I’ve seen people have success with medication and/or counseling. Neither worked for me. My saving treatment was acupuncture. I was pretty skeptical but it worked wonders. I am a completely different person. I still struggle sometimes, but I can win the battles now.
It’s very hard for people who have never struggled with depression to understand it. Now that I am healthy, I can see how frustrating it was for my friends and family to watch me go through it. They didn’t know what I went through and I truly didn’t know that people could be happy and content with their lives. I thought everyone was miserable - just some people chose to hide it.
Good question. I don't know what would be good to put on the list beyond "Find a reason to live". Perhaps one needs to make their own personalized list, but someone who is truly depressed simply isn't capable of doing that, at least not by themselves.
To me those are all rock solid reasons.
Yes they are good reasons, to you.
But you aren't in the depths of depression.
After I had decided to kill myself, and was only waiting for the house to settle down for the night to poison myself, I was saved by my son who passed me in the hall on one of his little errands, and said as he went by "I love you daddy".
No canned list could have done it.
But it doesn't really matter how many reasons there are, or even what they are. What matters is that they lead to one decision only: NEVER to commit suicide.
Agreed.
This precept overrides all impulse, all despair, all the reasons why suicide may seem like the only way out.
Sadly, no it doesn't.
This is why medication is so dangerous. A mind under the influence of drugs, legal or illegal, may forget that promise in a rush of emotion.
Yes and no. A lot of stupid stuff happens under the influence. No question there. BUT the reason medications (as opposed to street drugs and alcohol) can be very dangerous is paradoxically, as the person climbs out of the pit, they can pass through a zone where they are feeling up enough to commit suicide.
I will leave you the exercise of contemplating just how deep the pit has to be to be quite literally too depressed to kill yourself. I've been there.
Rules and reasons can help us remember.
As long as we're not so depressed we can't remember the rules...