is it right to blame addiction and mental health for suicide

[emma99]

Okay so for this topic i may as well give a bit of my own story.

The first time i was suicidal was when i was 16.
I was being hevily bullied in school at the time
and my family were neglecting me

At the age of 19 I became addicted to drugs and at age 21 I was admitted to a psyc unit
I had attempted suicide once before this when i was very drunk.

After being put on psyc meds I became extremely suicidal
which i had not been at the time of my hospitalisation

In the following years things got easier but since Covid things have taken a turn for the worse.

Alot of whats happened is very stressful so its not necessarily related to a mental illness
I have also since relapsed but i was planning on the suicide before I relapsed.

In some ways the relapse is keeping me alive
as it lessens the pain I am going through.

So my question is, do you think its okay for society to blame things like
mental health or mental illness (two separate things)
a mental illness is things like bipolar. mental health is just another term for mental well being
and well we all have a mental health status the same way we all have a physical health status.
I would see things like being unfit as a physical health issue. but being unfit is not an illness.

Or do you think its okay for people to say things like
"no wonder jimmy ctb, he was taking drugs. drugs made him ctb"

I mean theres a difference between some taking psycadellics
and ctb because they think a demon is chasing them.

And someone sick and tierd of life, who wants to ctb
who happens to drink, smoke weed and possibly take harder drugs right?

 

[itsalittlecold]

Yeah, the way I look at it is most if not all people who end up addicted to substances are generally self-medicating from an undiagnosed/untreated/misdiagnosed issue to start with… for me for example, when I ctb it's not cause I hate myself or anyone else, it's because my brain cannot conform to society in a way everyone else can, to get by each day. None of it makes sense, living these days seems absurd and abnormal.

You're definitely right about mental illness & mental health too- I spent weeks trying to get that across to the mental hospital, like okay I understand how all this works and helps someone with poor mental health… but what about a disorder? It's disordered thinking and half the time it's the individual that's been so self aware of themselves, it's basically what leads to the depression, instability etc I don't ever think they'll be proper answers either, it's soo deep rooted no one would know where it started

 

[SilentSadness]

It is sad to read you were bullied and neglected. As for blaming mental health or addictions, it's just a distraction from the true problem, which is society's complete failure to care about such problems.

 

[sylvey]

Okay so for this topic i may as well give a bit of my own story.

The first time i was suicidal was when i was 16.
I was being hevily bullied in school at the time
and my family were neglecting me

At the age of 19 I became addicted to drugs and at age 21 I was admitted to a psyc unit
I had attempted suicide once before this when i was very drunk.

After being put on psyc meds I became extremely suicidal
which i had not been at the time of my hospitalisation

In the following years things got easier but since Covid things have taken a turn for the worse.

Alot of whats happened is very stressful so its not necessarily related to a mental illness
I have also since relapsed but i was planning on the suicide before I relapsed.

In some ways the relapse is keeping me alive
as it lessens the pain I am going through.

So my question is, do you think its okay for society to blame things like
mental health or mental illness (two separate things)
a mental illness is things like bipolar. mental health is just another term for mental well being
and well we all have a mental health status the same way we all have a physical health status.
I would see things like being unfit as a physical health issue. but being unfit is not an illness.

Or do you think its okay for people to say things like
"no wonder jimmy ctb, he was taking drugs. drugs made him ctb"

I mean theres a difference between some taking psycadellics
and ctb because they think a demon is chasing them.

And someone sick and tierd of life, who wants to ctb
who happens to drink, smoke weed and possibly take harder drugs right?

I blame the mf who didn't use a condom for me wanting to die, like dude, if you hate your child so much maybe next time use one

 

[GuessWhosBack]

Most people lack a significant amount of emotional intelligence and grasp on logic, so I would not care that much about how they choose to rationalise other people's suicides. You might change how one person thinks, and there will be another tomorrow to replace them.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I'm sure mental illness can affect our perspective on life. I'm sure it can distort our thinking. But- like you say, it rarely just comes out of the blue I imagine. I imagine things like depression are triggered by difficult life circumstances. The same with drug use- it's a coping mechanism that can make matters worse I suppose.

Honestly though, it annoys me when society, families, whoever just blame pretty much all suicides on mental illness or instability. It doesn't do them any favours either- by focussing on this idea of some sort of abnormality or deviancy in the brain- basically only crazy, unbalanced people commit suicide- they are ignoring the fact that it's something anyone has the potential to go through.

I don't think we really like to acknowledge how many people would likely be diagnosed with some sort of mental illness. I think I read 1 in 4 will go through one at some point- including depression. I really don't think it does them any favours to believe it's something that happens to someone else caused by some random mental illness.

Life is difficult for a lot of people. Maybe if they focussed on what leads up to mental illness- depression, PTSD, compulsive disorders- they could help people before it got to the point they became suicidal. I suppose they need to ascertain properly though where it does come from. Can it be purely genetic or, is it more to do with our experiences in life? Regardless, I think a major problem is- people aren't encouraged to talk about their problems a lot of the time. I think people can still feel shame in admitting they are struggling in life.

 

[emma99]

I imagine things like depression are triggered by difficult life circumstances. The same with drug use- it's a coping mechanism that can make matters worse I suppose.

I really like this point.
I remember watching this video


A few weeks ago where a guy explained that depression is a modern problem.
He actually went into the details of what he believes causes it.

He mentioned that although hunter gathers faced a 'harsher' living environment.
(in terms of food, shelter and being exposed to the elements) / I actually think if anything we are living a harsher life now in terms of psychological stress.

Anyway he explained that the fight or flight response that is built into all humans is only ever supposed to be a short term increase of strength / awareness/ ect. And that when this mechanism is activated that it depletes the mind of certain nutrients, which then need time to replenish.

And that the modern way of living is so stressful, that people get locked into a constant fight/flight responses, and over time, their mind becomes exhausted of the fight/flight nutrients, and that this is what causes major depression.

Basically what his saying is that if people are going to abuse one another,
then the abused are going to become mentally fucked.