We all have free will and can make our own decisions, even about staying alive or dying. Apart from spiritual or moral imperatives, each of us can consciously decide to end our life here on earth. Somtimes the siren call of an easy way out is too much for us to avoid so some of us do choose death. None of us can look into another’s heart and soul and understand the demon which drove that person to end it all. Most of us-those who are kind and compassionate- wish that there had been another option, a better way to deal with a terrible ordeal. Death is going to arrive soon enough for all of us and most of us don’t want to hurry it along.
But the grim reality is that the numbers of suicides are increasing every year, in the 15-19 year old group suicide death cause is second only to accident. These young people just don’t realize that they are making a permanent decision to end a temporary problem. The elderly, especially those who lose a spouse or a beloved pet, commit suicide in large number.
Loss, grief, lonliness, disillusionment, rage, and betrayal spur many on to end it all. Many times drugs and alcohol are involved. Terminally ill or those with horribly debilitating illness such as ALS simply want to have some final control regarding the way they die. It is hard to view such people as ’sinful and godless’. Many times people in such circumstances are commiting an act of love when they lift the burden off loved ones in a final act of putting oneself last.
Ever enter a hospital and have the clerk ask you if you have a living will prepared? You have a right to take measures to make sure you are not kept alive when all hope is lost. Too bad there does not seem to be such a directive available in a nursing home, maybe because a living will was not exercised in the hospital. Most of the nursing homes I have visited are houses or horror where people are buried alive.
Depression, anxiety, stress loss, and no positive hope for the future deliver many into the hands of suicide. Negativity and pessimism are the malignant duo of depressed people who simply are tired of life and want to leave it. Solutions seem silly, irrelevant, and unworkable. There is nothing positive to hang on to and grab for dear life. When there is a scarcity of hope, when life seems unbearable, ending it seems to be a good thing, at the time. There is a sense of oppressive sadness in a suicidal person which cannot be mistaken. Trapped in an awful sense of doom, there is only one sure relief. Tomorrow is not going to bring anything better. Paralysis sets in and finality invades.
Each person who commits suicide emits a cry for help but many times none of us listen. Emotional, financial, physical, and spiritual pain is usually apparent. Each of us has to decide when we have the responsibility to hear the cry or let it go unheard.