Many people who died of cancer have written eloquently about how the crushing pain from their tumors paled in comparison to the pain they felt when depressed. Severe major depression is probably the most unbearable pain a human being can withstand for any protracted period of time. One of the things people have repeatedly posted in comments responding to Scott’s death is that you can’t weigh in on why someone might commit suicide unless you’ve really had your life torn apart by an episode of major depression. Junior Seau’s death classified as a suicideīut as much as I hate suicide, I also understand it. Like any psychiatrist who deals with the severely mentally ill, my life is littered with memories of folks who threw themselves off high buildings, hanged themselves in dark closets or slit their throats in dusky gardens. There was the shy kid who shot himself in high school, the young punk who drove his car off a particularly bad curve, the wonderful hard-working father of the class valedictorian, and various in-laws across a couple of marriages.Īnd those are just people from my personal life. But it runs in lots and lots of families and I’ve known – and known of – more people who have killed themselves than I can easily count. I’ve been fortunate that suicide does not run in my family. These are the suicides that haunt and hurt worst of all, and that almost to a person are the most tragic. The vast majority of people who choose methods of suicide that are almost guaranteed to succeed – like a gun to the head or a plunge from a high bridge – do so because of they are losing a battle against major depression. These types of suicides are heartbreaking, because they are so futile and can often be prevented by appropriate treatment. Report: NFL player texted sportswriter before suicide I had a patient once who made a very serious suicide attempt because she believed that if she died, the mysterious private investigators who were stalking her would leave her family alone. Occasionally people will commit suicide because they are psychotic and believe they must die for some reason that makes no sense to anyone else. For example, I knew a grand old fellow who, in the midst of unbearable physical pain from inoperable cancer, took his life when he had a life expectancy of two to three months. Occasionally people will commit suicide because they are facing some incurable condition that promises a brief future filled with nothing but pain.Īlthough many mental health clinicians will disagree vociferously with me, I have seen suicides that I felt were in this sense justified. On the other hand, people really only kill themselves for three reasons. I’ve known more than a few married people who kept a husband or wife from walking out on them, at least for a while, by making a suicide gesture. Sometimes people want to die, or half want to die.īut just as often in my experience, suicide attempts are a cry for help, or a way to punish people they are upset with, or a means of controlling a situation. Perhaps the first thing to say about suicide is that people make suicide attempts for all sorts of reasons. Although I’ve spent my life battling suicide, I find myself empathizing with both points of view. Many comments come from family members of people who have committed suicide, some defending the loved one’s decision, others decrying it as the ultimate selfish act. It is that strange mixture of relief and distress that characterizes many of the responses to Scott’s apparent suicide that have been posted on CNN.com. I also left Los Angeles, but a few years ago, I returned to the San Pedro area to give a talk and crossed that bridge with a mixture of relief and distress. She came to grips with a history of abuse and her depression eased. Fortunately, my patient avoided Scott’s fate.
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