News Doctor-Assisted Death For Those Living With Ptsd

[EveHarrington]

Please don't speak for everyone.

I really don't have a desire to live. Some of us actually DO want to die. Believe you me, I've done an in depth analysis of my life and the prognosis is not good. I don't want this life anymore.

 

[whiteraven]

1. A commitment towards ending child abuse
2. Severe penalties for child molesters so they can't tou...

Yeah, agreed. But I was thinking right now I guess. For some of us, all of this is just too late.

 

[ladee]

Maybe not @whiteraven, if we were some of the ones that helped to bring about these changes for others.... it would bring us some kind of justice, do you think?

 

[EmmaOwl]

What about an advance directive?

"If I must be hospitalized against my will for (x) number of days,..." then you can plan ahead, how much time you must spend suffering from suicidal..thoughts. Not thoughts. It would be phrased differently, but I think you get the idea. Assign a power of attorney.

Sorry if this has been said before on this thread.

 

[EmmaOwl]

There's no cure for life at large, it's terminal.

"He not busy being born is busy dying." I always think Bob Dylan has said everything best.

A song with a great title, here's a link to the rest of the lyrics: It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Yeah, it rhymes, but it's still profound (to me).

 

[hithere]

Always in my mind is this image of a famous woman who suffered from BPD and in the end she commited suicide by hanging, but when they found her, her hands were in the rope around her neck as if she was trying to escape. I keep this image for myself becuase these feelings will come up so quickly, so strongly, so outrageously for me. I had this happen to me today actually. Oddly when I awoke I was joyous and it was going to be a great day. Then some crap was blown at me--but it wasn't me who caught the crap. It was the 11 year old who was held against her will for trafficking. Being "back there" ... threw me into a chaotic, interpersonal, nightmarish wreck. I wish today I had responded better, I really do! Then the suicidal intense feelings. INTENSE. I guess I wasn't even making sense and people were afraid of me. SUCKS!!!! No I don't want dr. assisted suicide allowed for this disorder. I want my doctor to love me, not kill me.

 

[whiteraven]

Maybe not @whiteraven, if we were some of the ones that helped to bring about these ch...

Oh, I've been working to facilitate help and change, too. Organizing a nonprofit for advocacy and support. But the intensity of the depression prevents me from action. See where I'm going with this?

 

[ladee]

Yes, I do, and I am sorry if it appeared I was minimizing your situation, that was not my intention.... But at the same time, applaud you for stepping up in the ways that you could at the time.... I too have chronic depression and it rules my life some days... and if nothing else, we bring about small changes here.... again, did not mean to minimize your situation...

 

[DharmaGirl]

I was profoundly suicidal for 4 years, as I've said, and there was nothing I wanted more. The emotional pain was too much to bear. I would have opted for assisted suicide during those 4 years. I would have missed my son graduating, my discovery that chickens were like little dogs with feathers, meditation, repairing the relationship with my mom, disconnecting from toxic people who used me, standing up for my right to collect child support from my ex, who owes me 21,000 USD in arrears. I probably will never see it, he is a musician who is supported by his girlfriend, but I stood up for myself. Now I am able to recognize and do the things I enjoy, I see value in life. If I had succeeded in suiciding, I would have ruined my son's life. I had no idea I would feel this way in the future.

 

[mamalade]

The ONLY person that can say enough is enough is the person WITH PTSD. Why should anyone else ever make that choice for you? Sure there is help but at what cost? Not everyone is in a position to get help - regardless of what others think. How long should someone be told to live with PTSD? About as long as anyone without it feels like banging their head against the wall repeatedly to no end. When your nightmares bleed into your day and the only time you get relief is from being out cold...

It's about as close as Go kill yourself as you will get in the medical community. Being told that from...

If you think people with PTSD don't face this in some form or other due to the lack of available treatments to the cost of viable treatment you should find another forum. Forget being told "you can kill yourself" and be told "there are treatments but you can't get them or they won't work". Dying is always an option. Why not make it a kind option? Isn't it bad enough that someone has to suffer in life constantly? Why not let them make their own choice and be surrounded by compassionate care while doing so rather than leaving it in their hands to dying horribly? You clearly have no idea what it's like to have PTSD.

Always in my mind is this image of a famous woman who suffered from BPD and in the end she commited sui...

I'm willing to bet that for other people with PTSD dying is not an impulsive thought. It happens often. Why? I live with it every day. We don't even live in a society where it is ok to talk about it for Christ sake. PTSD itself is a horrible loss of freedom. Imagine trying to talk to someone about your suicidal thoughts on top of that...more loss of freedom. Where is the compassion in that? Of course they would want to live...but without the PTSD. It's only normal to fight to the last. Doesn't mean the person fighting to live actually wants to continue doing it. Why not give them a safe, compassionate alternative so they can go with ease - no more rope to tug at.

 

[anthony]

Sure there is help but at what cost? Not everyone is in a position to get help

Problem #1 - You're now trying to cite that death is an alternative to cost of treatment, when treatment does exist. If treatment exists, then you are not terminal IMHO.

There are many such related problems in relation to adding PTSD to DAD registers.

 

[shimmerz]

when treatment does exist.

I am afraid to say that treatment, in Canada at least, is not available. If one has 160 - 200 per 40 minutes then that is workable, but many of us don't have access to such funds. Otherwise, it is go to a psychiatrist, have a 5 -10 minute appointment to check on meds, which for me at least, led to my complete demise socially, financially, physically -- like completely. I am only now, hopefully, recovering, after 10 years and that is due, not to our social system, which apparently everyone in the world things is just grand, but is absolutely not.

It has been dipping to -40 degrees here the past couple of weeks. The homeless are dropping like flies, obviously. It's all a house of mirrors this 'help' that we apparently get here in Canada. Apparently it is like that in the US as well. I have never seen so many homeless in such an incredibly privileged area (Santa Monica) EVER. And the homeless were treated like crap there. Do you know that in some States in the US that homelessness is illegal? Even sleeping in one's car is illegal?

The Laws Cities Use To Make Homelessness a Crime

Having said that, I absolutely agree, we should have services available to us. The truth is though, we don't. And that leaves us, when times are desperate, to need an alternative out. And it is so desperate at times that some of us choose to die. To me, it is a totally logical alternative to freezing to death on some street in downtown urban hub while people busily scurry by, ignoring what is right in front of them.

The problem isn't the people who need to die to get out of immeasurable and never ending suffering. No. It is the callousness of the decision makers to perpetuate this type of environment and then tell us (and society as a whole) that we are cowards when subjected to this lifestyle. I dare any one of the policy makers who damn those who choose to die to live that kind of life for a week (in -40 weather of course), let alone for a decade or more.

It's a double bind. Again. And many of us have lived these double binds for most of our lives. I have no further interest.