Venting Cowardly?

[givenup]

I'm so tired of hearing/ reading comments of suicide being cowardly.. or the easy way out. The people who say this are ignorant and have no idea what it's like to be in this position. I'm sure most, if not all, the people here who are longing to CTB don't feel that way, but a horrendous amount of the general population does. I'm positive that those who say that have never been close to ctb themselves or they would know how difficult it is to overcome the survival instinct. Even with the most peaceful methods, willing yourself to do the deed is so very hard. Maybe I don't speak for everyone but I'd say that many people feel this way.

I'd like to bring up a point that I'm not sure really makes sense - but it sounds good in my head. A building is burning with a child inside. A man runs into the building and saves said child. He's a hero right? Why? Because he overcame his survival instinct to save someone in need. I understand it's different for us - that guy probably wants to live - but don't we have to overcome the same instinct? Isn't it just has hard for that man to overcome his fears of dying as it is for us? Maybe more so for us, because we have too much time to think and dwell, where as he had a split second decision. If it is so easy to overcome this fear, why is this man applauded? Shouldn't everyone be able to run into a burning building without second thoughts? ..I certainly understand that the difference is that we WANT to die. But our body/ brain is hardwired to resist death for as long as possible, so deep down regardless of how we may personally feel, our body fights to survive. Does this argument make sense? Or does it sound ridiculous? I only just thought about this recently, and it seemed to make sense when thinking of the average Joe (I'm sure drugs/ alcohol can suppress the instinct a bit, as can training - such as military perhaps - I'd assume).

Personally, I see myself as a coward. I neither live or die. I just exist, hoping for a death I won't see coming and refusing to accept this shit life.

 

[Sasha]

Everyone sees suicide as something people who can't do anything do. They call them cowards, losers & what not? But one thing they don't realise is that, committing suicide needs guts & commitment. Which is something, only people like us understand.

 

[RainAndSadness]

I guess it's the 'easy solution' because people that never were in our situation think we run away from something, therefore chosing the easy way out instead of 'facing the challenge'. Which is nonsense though. Facing death is a big struggle, despite all my desire to ctb. I'm very confident in my decision to commit suicide with a peaceful solution but I recognise that overcoming the survival instinct requires a lot of desperation.

These people are ignorant and they don't unterstand the reasons why people commit suicide.

 

[Imaginos]

Everyone sees suicide as something people who can't do anything do. They call them cowards, losers & what not? But one thing they don't realise is that, committing suicide needs guts & commitment. Which is something, only people like us understand.

Yep, exactly. I'd like to go one further though and make the rather (controversial?) claim that the "real path" of a coward, at least as far as I'm concerned, is to exist in a sort of pitiful predicament, such as the one I've found myself in for years now. That is to say, having zero interest/desire/tolerance left in continuing to live, yet being too weak/afraid to die. Whether one chooses to "live" (whatever the hell that even means) or to die, both approaches tend to ask something of the individual involved in the decision. Continuing to endure life's unending bullshit out of fear while moving in no direction whatsoever asks nothing at all. As you said yourself, the necessary ingredients to kill oneself usually require enormous quantities of conviction, determination, and courage. Since someone like me doesn't have an ounce of any of those things, I'm instead just slithering along like a slug in an excruciating limbo enforced by my utter powerlessness & revolting lack of bravery while being a total burden to everyone & everything around me. Not to mention that simply waiting to die is the weakest, laziest, easiest and most default thing anyone on this planet can do, which, for someone who wants desperately to die, just compounds what I've already said. Frankly, I'm quite surprised most people don't have more disdain for the former. I mean, what's the use in having someone continue to live if they're just going to make life harder for everyone else by doing so and be a net negative on the economy? After all, in today's society, your economic/financial worth as an exploitable resource seems to be the only measurement that matters, but whatever. The real answer is that everyone on this planet is brainwashed into the life cult from day one and so, naturally, suicide is seen as the highest heresy, regardless of the situation. Still though, it seems obvious, to me anyway, mere endurance of existence, not suicide, is the true coward's way out.

May it not be this — that the voluntary surrender of life is a bad compliment for him who said that all things were very good? If this is so, it offers another instance of the crass optimism of these religions — denouncing suicide to escape being denounced by it.
Arthur Schopenhauer- On Suicide

 

[SoLost]

Suicide is anything but cowardly...it takes a LOT of courage to overcome the fear of dying and finally get through with it. The people who say it's just the 'easy way out' are cowards themselves. They could never overcome such fear or will ever understand whats it like to be in so much pain that only death sounds like a relief.

 

[usrnm80]

Its usually because they fail to see what killing yourself takes and perceive suicide as something childish, done on a whim as soon as any "minor" problem appears. Often that's the same people who will go "who could have known" if someone near them kills themselves.
Also lots of people who use the "cowardice" argument are often highly competitive achievers. Suicidal people ruin their value system by not participating in such bullshit and it pisses them off immensely.

 

[MAIO]

I'm so tired of hearing/ reading comments of suicide being cowardly.. or the easy way out. The people who say this are ignorant and have no idea what it's like to be in this position. I'm sure most, if not all, the people here who are longing to CTB don't feel that way, but a horrendous amount of the general population does. I'm positive that those who say that have never been close to ctb themselves or they would know how difficult it is to overcome the survival instinct. Even with the most peaceful methods, willing yourself to do the deed is so very hard. Maybe I don't speak for everyone but I'd say that many people feel this way.

I'd like to bring up a point that I'm not sure really makes sense - but it sounds good in my head. A building is burning with a child inside. A man runs into the building and saves said child. He's a hero right? Why? Because he overcame his survival instinct to save someone in need. I understand it's different for us - that guy probably wants to live - but don't we have to overcome the same instinct? Isn't it just has hard for that man to overcome his fears of dying as it is for us? Maybe more so for us, because we have too much time to think and dwell, where as he had a split second decision. If it is so easy to overcome this fear, why is this man applauded? Shouldn't everyone be able to run into a burning building without second thoughts? ..I certainly understand that the difference is that we WANT to die. But our body/ brain is hardwired to resist death for as long as possible, so deep down regardless of how we may personally feel, our body fights to survive. Does this argument make sense? Or does it sound ridiculous? I only just thought about this recently, and it seemed to make sense when thinking of the average Joe (I'm sure drugs/ alcohol can suppress the instinct a bit, as can training - such as military perhaps - I'd assume).

Personally, I see myself as a coward. I neither live or die. I just exist, hoping for a death I won't see coming and refusing to accept this shit life.

Saying suicide is the cowards way out or easy way out usually does not makes sense becuase in order to die by suicide you have to overpower the strongest instinct; survival. "As I lay in my car waiting to drift into eternal sleep, I realized I could not go through with it. I was to cowardly, I will never take the cowards way out again." Do you see the irony? She was to cowardly to kill herself, and called suicide the cowards way out.

People who make this argument who semiunderstand what they are saying(many don't) try to make some bizzare well if you add up all the effort over the years it would take more than kill yourself. It's akin to saying sprinting is cowardly becuase running a marathon is harder. If you agree with the notion picking less effort is cowardly,(possible hero complex) it's true but it would also be easier just not to sprint to begin with. It's also one of the most bizzare arguments I have ever heard that is usually made from stigma by someone who has not thought through what they are saying and forgets survival instinct exists. I personally want to do whatever is best for me, if what's best and easiest are the same descion that is the most ideal but unlikely.