![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
.
.
.
You can never defend the guy who commits suicide, even when you feel sorry for him. You just have to bit your tongue when a person near you starts clucking his or her tongue and saying something along the lines of, "I'll never understand what makes a person do something like that. It's the most selfish thing you could do, in my opinion."
If you say something like, "I'm glad you don't understand, and I hope you never do," they will look at you strangely and extend their negative assessment of the deceased to you as well.
If you say, "Probably because he wanted the pain to stop," they will look at you incredulously and respond that it was a permanent solution to a temporary problem, etc. etc.
So you keep your mouth shut. Defending the indefensible never wins you any friends or scores you any social points. Explaining the why of an act of desperation won't make the other person feel more enlightened, it will only make them defensive toward their own ignorance.
No, I'm not depressed and not thinking of taking my life. But I have a special insight most people, not even those who have suffered from depression, don't have. Depression really is all in a person's head – their biological brain, to be exact. It's a matter of physiology, not attitude. It's one of those things I figured out in college, but not in any class that I took.
( Waking up to a New World )
.
.
You can never defend the guy who commits suicide, even when you feel sorry for him. You just have to bit your tongue when a person near you starts clucking his or her tongue and saying something along the lines of, "I'll never understand what makes a person do something like that. It's the most selfish thing you could do, in my opinion."
If you say something like, "I'm glad you don't understand, and I hope you never do," they will look at you strangely and extend their negative assessment of the deceased to you as well.
If you say, "Probably because he wanted the pain to stop," they will look at you incredulously and respond that it was a permanent solution to a temporary problem, etc. etc.
So you keep your mouth shut. Defending the indefensible never wins you any friends or scores you any social points. Explaining the why of an act of desperation won't make the other person feel more enlightened, it will only make them defensive toward their own ignorance.
No, I'm not depressed and not thinking of taking my life. But I have a special insight most people, not even those who have suffered from depression, don't have. Depression really is all in a person's head – their biological brain, to be exact. It's a matter of physiology, not attitude. It's one of those things I figured out in college, but not in any class that I took.
( Waking up to a New World )
