Suicide

[Vorenus]

First, I think this suicide business needs to be put into context:

The human body is a biological organism that is entirely built around survival. In fact, it's only been the past several thousand years where we had creatures on this planet that have been able to really think and ponder concepts that do not directly stem from "survival instinct" if you will. We in health care, who are also scientists in a sense should be keenly aware of just how important survival is. It's built into our nervous systems, we see in in the ability to clot, we recoginse it when we undergo physiological changes at high altitudes, we see it in the physiology of our patients who are experiencing various forms of shock.

With that said, when a person is at a place where they are essentially overiding millions of years of evolution and natural selection based around survival, this should be considered profoundly abnormal. I know many people simply look at suicide as being a sin or a profoundly selfish act. However, a person has to be profoundly disturbed to overcome basic survival programming. Unfortunately, we often do not really appreciate the absolute seriousness of a person who is suicidal. If we can appreciate suicide for what it is, then we can appreciate how desperate and profoundly sick these patients are or were. We clearly appreciate the gravity of the situation when a patient has severe DKA, but often fail to appreciate that with people who are suicidal.

With all of that said, we should also realise that mental illness is not a problem with the "soul." It is a real, tangable and potentially devistating problem that requires aggressive treatment just like the DKA patient mentioned above. Even after initial treatment, this is often something that will not go away. Just like insulin dependant diabetes, we understand that a life long battle will ensue. Also, just like diabetes where even compliant patients can end up with serious exacerbations such as DKA, we can expect people who struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts/ideation and the like to also experiences exacerbations in spite of treatment.

Religion is a tricky subject. While I believe it can play a positive role in some cases, we need to put religion in to proper context when considering the physical world. Religion is not a particularly good mechanism for exerting control over the physical world in the sense that things can magically occur as a result of divine intervention. I could be wrong, but have not appreciated evidence to suggest my hypothesis is incorrect. However, religion can play a significant role in people who can use it to help make sense of "life" and esoteric questions that cannot be answered by science. Religion can give us faith, hope and fellowship. These are all potentially important and helpful. Religion is a good way for like minded people to get together and support one and other and hopefully support others who are not as like minded, but that is another topic and another discussion. Clearly, this can become perniscious in some cases, but can be very helpful and supportive for some people.

I see religion as playing a role in helping people in certain situations, but it cannot get in the way of therapy that is based on observation and emperic experience within the physical world. It may sound like I am an atheist; however, many here know that is not the case at all. With that, we cannot let our faith based ideas encroach upon the emperically derived physical world.

My best wishes and thoughts go out to people who struggle with these issues because I gather the struggles can be difficult and are life long.

Thanks for these interesting thoughts!

I`m always a bit torn, when it comes to this subject. Surely, the most cases of suicide we see are the result of some sort of psychological disease/condition.

Still, the concept of a "voluntary death" exists, but there`s always a debate about wether such a thing is really possible, or wether all suicide are the result of a mental condition.

Personally, I guess there is such a thing, but it`s a tricky subject.

Although, I`m also thinking that the concept spoken of, was mostly applied in the context of socially relevant necessities, mostly as a way of "keeping your honour" (i.e., I`m thinking Ancient Romans and Japanese Samurais) - so it propably wasn`t such a free decision, but at least they weren`t the result of a mental condition in the first place.

Edited October 30, 2011 by Vorenus

[Linuss]

something you have ZERO PROOF OF even existing.

Funny, kind of like how you have zero proof that it doesn't exist?

[chbare]

Funny, kind of like how you have zero proof that it doesn't exist?

Exactly, therefore such a concept will never be an appropriate theory for defining the physical world. For something to be a valid theory, it has to make predictions that can be tested and it has to be potentially falsifiable.