Do You Believe Suicide is the "Coward's Way Out?"

I always hated hearing that. In my opinion, I believe that suicide is an act of desperation, seeing no light at the end of the tunnel. How do you feel about suicide? Do you believe it's an act of cowardice?

I think it's an act of stupidity in most cases.

Who is anyone to think it's anything unless they know what is going on in that person's head or what they're going through. Mental pain can sometimes be just as strong as any physical. Just because you haven't been there before or you don't believe in the idea doesn't mean it's not the truth. Don't ever downplay it simply because you can't understand it or it conflicts with your own beliefs. Some people consider it stupid and cowardly, while others consider it very sad and unfortunate. There's rarely an in between.

Those that do it strictly for attention is also a cause of some people considering it stupid or cowardly. Religion doesn't help with that way of thinking either.

In my humble opinion, I consider anyone looking down on it or considering it weak/stupid/cowardly, to be ignorant about it, or just simply lack the proper empathy.

I'm pleading the 5th on answering this one. It happens, people have their reasons for doing it. That's on them, it's not my right to judge, so what I believe doesn't matter.

No. I do believe it's an act that goes directly against our primal survival instinct though. Animal suicide is a rather uncommon sight in comparison. I wanted to term it irrational at first, but then I realized that many people can make perfectly rational arguments for the right to take one's own life - in their respective situations. Which I am perfectly fine with, especially when it comes to the topic of assisted dying. If not for our mental capacity to argue for or at the very least rationalize this kind of behavior, suicide wouldn't even be a thing.

I do have little empathy for those who consistently use suicide or talking about suicide as the most extreme tool to direct attention at themselves. Like Siku said, it's their kind who unconsciously promote it as cowardice and a thing to not be taken as seriously as necessary.

On a side note, I always thought it was a dangerous idea how the only counter-argument by some people contemplating it was the responsibility towards family or friends. One really shouldn't be kept alive and sane by their social obligations only. They are free to try, but something I noticed in that regard is a thing I'd call "passive suicide" which I'd basically see as neglecting your physical and mental health to a point where death or accidents become significantly more probable.

I don't believe you are looking down on someone for calling a stupid thing they've done, a stupid thing. Of course there is way more nuance to all of this but I'm on mobile and lazy as honeysuckle so I'll just read everyone else's fun nuanced discussions instead. :O

Siku said:

Who is anyone to think it's anything unless they know what is going on in that person's head or what they're going through. Mental pain can sometimes be just as strong as any physical. Just because you haven't been there before or you don't believe in the idea doesn't mean it's not the truth. Don't ever downplay it simply because you can't understand it or it conflicts with your own beliefs. Some people consider it stupid and cowardly, while others consider it very sad and unfortunate. There's rarely an in between.

Those that do it strictly for attention is also a cause of some people considering it stupid or cowardly. Religion doesn't help with that way of thinking either.

In my humble opinion, I consider anyone looking down on it or considering it weak/stupid/cowardly, to be ignorant about it, or just simply lack the proper empathy.

Click to expand...

Well said Siku, I completely agree

Absolutely not. But it can be selfish if you have loved ones who might be devastated by you doing it.

I have no one, so I'm sure that when I die it will be by suicide. Not yet, but one day. I don't see myself as a coward. I've just lost all enthusiasm for life and I'm fed up of hurting every single effing day.

I don't believe in silly religious explanations of hell for suicides. I don't believe it's cowardly. I don't believe it's bad. I believe it's sad. That's all.

Zook, I'm sorry to hear that you are feeling the way that you are. All I can offer is that you have no one ......" right now". Life changes in a moment.

It is such a personal thing, unique to every individual. No one should ever be judged for such a personal pain or decision. I agree with everyone who has commented.

Suicide of a loved one has touched my life more than once. In the most direct and traumatic of ways, and in more indirect and painful ways. There never is a big enough "how come" or an answer that makes it feel right or less painful.

A constant though, was how sad I was at how much the people who chose to leave, truly had an impact on others and were valued and just didn't/couldn't see it.

It also strikes me...how may people fight for life when the choice to live is potentially taken away from them.



A young person shared something with me within the last month.

"Suicide doesn't end the pain, it just passes it on to someone else"....and they said that this quote was the only reason that they were still here striving to find a path. They found it on line somewhere, but it struck a cord with them. And it struck a cord with me.

I'm going to leave this thread alone now... it still makes me sad. But I wanted to comment.

Farmgirl said:

Zook, I'm sorry to hear that you are feeling the way that you are. All I can offer is that you have no one ......" right now". Life changes in a moment.

It is such a personal thing, unique to every individual. No one should ever be judged for such a personal pain or decision. I agree with everyone who has commented.

Suicide of a loved one has touched my life more than once. In the most direct and traumatic of ways, and in more indirect and painful ways. There never is a big enough "how come" or an answer that makes it feel right or less painful.

A constant though, was how sad I was at how much the people who chose to leave, truly had an impact on others and were valued and just didn't/couldn't see it.

It also strikes me...how may people fight for life when the choice to live is potentially taken away from them.



A young person shared something with me within the last month.

"Suicide doesn't end the pain, it just passes it on to someone else"....and they said that this quote was the only reason that they were still here striving to find a path. They found it on line somewhere, but it struck a cord with them. And it struck a cord with me.

I'm going to leave this thread alone now... it still makes me sad. But I wanted to comment.

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well stated
I wonder if a person could see the aftermath effects that would chose life

Suicide is the culmination of many unfortunate things. Often, one of them is cowardice.

No, I don't think it's the coward's way out. A person I know who committed suicide wasn't a coward by any means. For him, I think it was impulsive. He had a gun, he was feeling depressed and he made a decision that can never be undone.
I don't think we can ever have a satisfactory reason to the question
"why". There are too many layers to people's lives to boil it down to simply being cowardly.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123.

-Teresa

I believe, as you said Komodo, that suicide is often an act of desperation. But I do agree with the reasoning of many of the others here. I don't believe in reducing someone's choice to 'stupidity' or 'cowardice'. You can't know the 'why' of the matter until you've lived their experience.
Chin up, Zook. I know sometimes the pain within can be stronger than any stimuli without, and there doesn't seem an escape from it but to end things. But there can be a better after, though perhaps you can't visualize it in the darkness clouding your vision.

Honestly, and not trying to romanticize the act if that's the correct word, but I think it's a bold act. No one knows what will happen once we are gone. Whether the gates open up & we meet God, or the fiery pits, or stuck in "limbo", or if we just become "dust in the wind"... just facing death before it's your natural time is pretty scary I think. To take yourself out of this life & into whatever our afterlife is is brave. I don't even what to use the word "brave" but that's the closest meaning I can think of I guess. It's definitely not cowardice in my opinion. To me, it's scarier to face whatever afterlife that awaits us eventually than living this life. These thoughts have stopped me many times from attempting. Well also my mom. She fought for my life since I was born... I can't hurt her like that after she sacrificed her whole life to raise me.

I suppose one facet of suicide that is difficult for me to process is the way it leaves total destruction in one's wake. I'd never want my legacy to be the total emotional devastation of my friends and family, leaving them a terrible burden - a curse - they must carry for the rest of their lives. Honestly, I'd have a hard time thinking of many things crueler than that.

Regardless of how unwanted someone feels, the act of killing oneself is likely to deeply harm at least a few people if not many, many more. I guess I'm just not cruel enough.

Siku said:

Who is anyone to think it's anything unless they know what is going on in that person's head or what they're going through. Mental pain can sometimes be just as strong as any physical. Just because you haven't been there before or you don't believe in the idea doesn't mean it's not the truth. Don't ever downplay it simply because you can't understand it or it conflicts with your own beliefs. Some people consider it stupid and cowardly, while others consider it very sad and unfortunate. There's rarely an in between.

Those that do it strictly for attention is also a cause of some people considering it stupid or cowardly. Religion doesn't help with that way of thinking either.

In my humble opinion, I consider anyone looking down on it or considering it weak/stupid/cowardly, to be ignorant about it, or just simply lack the proper empathy.

Click to expand...

Really well put, i agree.

I don't think its cowardly either.

I had a friend commit suicide and its was just sad and devastating, he seemed to have so much going for him and in the end one day could not cope with his issues, i will always miss him.

I don't think i cant explain really why i felt like that myself, its a combination of things at the time and because of the future i saw for myself.
I also had no one to talk too and would try to reach out only to see just how little everyone cared it kinda made me feel like what was the point in bothering anymore.
The loneliness can be a killer in that situation.

Recently after everything that happened with my ex and my relationship breaking down i certainly felt like that again, but i feel like i am past reacting off it like i did in the past.
Its still hard from time to time but somehow i cope better with it and can just let the feeling pass through till i don't feel like that anymore.

I do also believe in life after death and have come to the understanding that i am supposed to be here even if its hard and i feel sometimes there is no future for me.
I could explain my belief in life after death but i think its one of those things you need to see or feel for yourself and you either believe or not.

I feel for anyone who has been so low to feel like doing that.

I think committing suicide takes a certain amount of courage. To consciously end your own life, to leave behind the people and the things that you love, it doesn't strike me as the act of a coward. I think the ones we should feel sorry for are those left behind. Suicide can be such a destructive act, in that sense.

I had a friend do it from psychosis back in 2013. He was hearing voices telling him to do it. I believe with the right medical care that he possibly could have been brought back from the brink but he wasn't in a position to get that.

So no, I don't believe he was a coward, just faced with a situation in life that was unlivable and probably wasn't going to get better.