Discussion Are there non-emotional reasons to continue living?

[thetwilightzone]

It seems that pro-lifers can't really justify life without emotion. It's about.

• "suicide is cowardly"
• "suicide doesn't just affect the person"
• "suicidal people are ungrateful because others have it worse and still live"

It's funny how no one ever says anything positive.

If emotional blackmail is all they have, I'm more inclined to die. This life is pointless and these phrases prove that for a sizeable majority of people, life isn't about living because there's anything good but because people are enslaved to ideas of "being tough" "not being selfish" "persevering" etc....

 

[Trashcan]

This is spot on. They're all emotional reasons. And more often than not, they're more guilt tripping than anything else or sharing opinions. The "positive" reasons are often unrealistic (such as suicide only takes the chance away for life to get better which is BS) or religious reasons, and not everyone is religious.

For the second reason, I don't think they realize some people truly have no one that cares about them. For others, some people care about them, but they move on very quickly. A few of my friends lost people (as in they died) and they all moved on quickly. Some people have passed away in my family, and if anyone cared, they moved on quickly. But there were always people who were not affected by the death.

And it's silly to expect someone to live because there's someone out there worse off that continues living. I've never understood this "logic." Suffering is subjective. And yes, there may be ways that person has it worse. But there also may be ways they have it better since they aren't the suicidal ones.

 

[blueming]

Making me feel guilty for wanting to kill myself is going to make me want to kill myself more to be honest, haha. You're right, pro-lifers don't actually have positive reasons for living, emotional blackmail is their only weapon.

- "Suicide is cowardly" I think we all know how hard it is to go through with it even if you badly want to die, how many obstacles we have to face. I think we're all very brave for doing what we think is best for ourselves and trying to escape our pain.
- "Suicide doesn't just affect the person" If my family/friends really love me, they should support my decision and respect the fact that I want to stop suffering instead of guilt-tripping me and forcing me to be alive and in torment.
- "Suicidal people are ungrateful, other people have it worse" There are people who have it better than us too. Are we not allowed to be happy because there are people happier?

The "positive" reasons are often unrealistic (such as suicide only takes the chance away for life to get better which is BS)

I agree with this, it's totally unrealistic and I feel like normal people are just lying to themselves because they can't accept death as an option. It's always a gamble, there is always that (very high) chance that your life will get worse and I wonder why normal people can't understand.