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News Doctor-Assisted Death For Those Living With Ptsd

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I'm not sure about this, but it occurred to me this used to be originally called 'assisted suicide' (out here), and kind of like a shock to me I thought: if suicide is (generally, at least) accepted to often include when suffering overwhelms resources, plus a lack of fear (acceptance or encouragement of it by self, +/ or others), and feeling a burden +/or lack of purpose (again, potentially agreed upon or accepted as so by others), and very frequently accompanied by depression esp, and mental illness (which involves suffering itself), perhaps it is comfort, and accompaniment of those in this situation and suicidal in general, which eradicates the desire for this option?

JMHThoughts or wonderings, though. Not even sure if that makes sense. I think people in general value autonomy more than compassion (which comes from the word co-passion, referring to accompanying those suffering, I think).
 
I think for myself only, I've come to realize allowing it includes an element of my trauma-re-enactment-at-it's-finest: -> ~'We get what we deserve, right?'

Restitution of sorts. No better way to deal with survivors' guilt than not surviving what you didn't prevent.
 
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I saw this in the news again, as they have a commission coming back with findings about including, amongst others, those with psychological suffering.

I had a profound realization- not profound in content, just profound to me: that grouping people with ptsd and depression in the 'vulnerable' category (and hence to be excluded from choosing the option), infers that the suffering that occurs involuntarily (the consequences of triggers- FB's, intrusive thoughts, etc) somehow leaves someone 'not in their right mind' to choose. Rather than specifically the debate centered around autonomy of decisions, rather the incapacity to make them.

But speaking for myself, if I only 'was in my right mind' when I wasn't experiencing managing triggers, FB's, intrusive thoughts, cognitive distortions, or situational depression or fear related greatly to the past, I wouldn't be 'in my right mind', the majority of the time. (And of course it's solely my responsibility to identify, and try to manage or dis-assemble those.)

Someone posted a documentary here, and a woman paramedic who got help after a suicide attempt was in it, her friend said she was talking all about what she saw in a trauma (the detail I won't repeat) over and over, while becoming conscious. And her friend said I finally realized after 17 years what she lives with in her mind each day.

So I do believe it's about processing trauma, and trying to overcome it. And addressing depression, and learning how to be or accept inclusion and establish a life manageable to live. And if a person is really lucky there might too be help from others to keep trying to do that. But that should be the argument to me (JMHO), not the former. The former denies the reality of the suffering, the latter says what can I do with the suffering to overcome it, some will spike, some will remain. (I was thinking of the 'spoon' analogy- accepting what energy I have to go around, on any given day). JMO though.
 
I think a lot of what you have all responded with. I think I don't trust anyone to decide if it's time for me to die.

I don't think people with mental illness should be given the right to die. We have enough problems with people suffering from terrible physical illnesses where they cannot die 'with dignity' and truly do require mercy.

Remember the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest"?? - That was an example of when things go wrong. Imagine adding this into the mix? Noooo!
 
I think the thing that irritates me about this debate is who said people with mental illness don't have the capacity to make their own choices about their life? Whether or not they find it valuable enough to keep dragging themselves through the struggles of daily life and the struggle of mental illness is really up to them. This of, course flies right into the big grey void of religion, ethics, and personal philosophy.
Personally, if a doctor is going to milk my insurance company for years by slowly killing me with psychiatric medication that nobody really knows the long term effects of why would they suddenly feel bad when I requested to be euthanized? I shouldn't have to take medication to mask symptoms of mental illness if I don't want to. If I've decided it's too difficult and I don't want to put up with the humiliating rigamarole and financial strain of hospitalizations and common mental health treatment then I should be able to die with the illusion of dignity at least.
Someone killing themselves on their own is seen as selfish and traumatizing to others because they do have to do it in unconventional ways. Yes, if people are squeegeeing you off the front of an Amtrak then you've taken time out of people's lives and are bringing them into a situation they never asked to be a part of. If it was a team of professionals it could be done professionally and there would be less collateral damage to those who want nothing to do with it like first responders, bystanders etc.
People should have the option. It's a personal choice. They should have that freedom to make that decision. Many people with mental illness have clarity and insight into "what's wrong" with them and if they feel they can fix it enough to where life still holds value. To force someone to linger on when they already know they can't is just something I've never understood. The same goes for people with terminal illness that are forced to writhe around in pain even if they don't want to.
 
Someone killing themselves on their own is seen as selfish and traumatizing to others because they do have to do it in unconventional ways.
The friends I've had commit suicide did it with guns. I don't know if that's "conventional" or not. It was "small t" traumatic, for me, because I loved them and lost them and I don't think they were in a place there was no coming back from. I know they thought that at the time. It bothers me that they didn't get the help they needed, and deserved, to survive. I guess I don't think of their suicides as selfish because I know they weren't selfish people and I know that's not what they were feeling at the time. But, do I think they made good choices? HELL NO. In fact, I think things could have been different. As it was, they didn't get lucky when it came to getting help, and luck was all it was.

I'll agree that there's a time and a place. I don't think I can agree that the person who walks to the edge of the cliff is necessarily in a position to make a good choice, in the moment.
 
'll agree that there's a time and a place. I don't think I can agree that the person who walks to the edge of the cliff is necessarily in a position to make a good choice, in the moment.
The boy that was in the same abuse situation as me overdosed when he was 20. I'm now 10 years older than he was when he died. I can't tell you if he made the "right" decision or not because pain is subjective. Sometimes people just know when they can't go on. Does that mean that everyone surviving agrees with it? No.
Maybe if he went he went to discuss his right to die with a "professional suicide consultant" in a private setting the gravity of that choice would've been more apparent to him. Maybe he would've recanted and chose some kind of help to address the damage that was done to him by the rapes he suffered.
The people who really want to die will go through with it in a professional environment. The people who are in terrible emotional upheaval will be shocked by the reality of it and could then be offered other types of help.
 
I also really feel if that service was available he would've been able to disclose his rape to an anonymous non-judgemental individual. This is what psychologists go to school for. In his case, I genuinely believe he needed help for the torture he endured but he was so ashamed, so defined by it, he felt his only option was to die. "Professional suicide consultants" (that's what I'm calling them) are going to save more lives then approve deaths.
 
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