Don't get me wrong. I don't think suicide is a good thing. I've discouraged suicidal friends from doing it. I once called an ambulance for a good friend that was swallowing a bottle of pills while on the phone with me. When I was a social worker, I once put a teenager and his mom into a cab, which I paid for out of my pocket, to go to the emergency room because he was suicidal and mom didn't drive and I wasn't about to send her and a suicidal kid out to catch a bus to the hospital.
But my friend wasn't selfish when she called me on the phone and told me she was taking a bottle of pills. She was severely depressed and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The teenager that sat in my office and told me he had a stockpile of pills hidden in his bedroom wasn't selfish. He was severely depressed.
They were both sick. They didn't get sick on purpose. They didn't want to be sick. It isn't selfish to get sick.
When my grandmother got breast cancer, she wasn't being selfish. When my grandfather develop Alzheimer's disease, he was not being selfish. When Mike's father developed congestive heart failure and died from it, he was not being selfish. They were sick. Sick does not equal selfish.
Most people that commit suicide are mentally ill. They are very sick. Mentally ill does not equal selfish.
Someone that is suffering from severe depression or another serious mental illness can't just stop being sick, anymore than my grandmother or grandfather or Mike's dad could just decide not to be sick. That doesn't mean they are selfish.
And I am so tired of all the ignorant people that think it does.
This is beautiful Kelly. Thank you from someone who's been there
ReplyDeleteSonja