nameonhold
Posts: 48
Joined: 6/8/2005 Status: offline
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Not in all, but in a HUGE and OVERWHELMING majority of cases of suicide, there is some mental illness operating. The mental illness is either undiagnosed, improperly diagnosed, improperly treated, or in an unusually acute phase. Nobody "just breaks" or "just flips their wig." Very commonly, the mental illness has been in place for a very long time. That is to say, very infrequently, does someone decide to commit suicide, by whatever means, on the spur of the moment. Suicide is much like many other physical illnesses with which we are generally more familiar. Based upon years of medical research, we now know that it is very unusual for someone the "suddenly" drop dead of a heart attack. Years of research has show us that the "sudden death" is actually the culmination, or the end phase (if you will), of a cardiovascular disease process which finds it's origins in a disease process which is well established. Maybe it was 20 or 25 years of unregulated high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, or diabetes, etc., etc. The "sudden heart attack" is just the end game in a long disease process. The same is true with respect to most suicides. The suicide itself is the culmination of a long and well established mental illness which was impropertly treated or undiagnosed. Irrespective of how severe an individual's mental illness, the mentally ill person, and NOT the people around them, must accept responsibility for their behavior, including their suicide. I've been bound by rope many, many times, and never had any suicidal thoughts. Pharmacists are not responsible for lawfully dispensing medication to people who abuse the medication and consequently die. Barbers who might provide you a nice clean shave are not responsible for the suicides of their customers who later slash their wrists with a similar razor. Driving instructors are not responsible for teaching people to drive who later intentionally drive their car into a tree. There is potential for the misuse of all sorts of things in life, rope being just one of them. I sincerely appreciate the remorse you must be feeling about the dead of someone for whom you obviously had some level of affection. But you are not responsible for her suicide.
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