Story "What I have learned from my suicidal patients" (The Guardian)

[Maravillosa]

I regularly read The Guardian online and came across this intriguing article, which is written by a Scottish GP. Below is the concluding paragraph:

When I think of the hundreds of patients I have heard speak of suicide over the past 20 years, whether their own or that of others, and I imagine all those I will no doubt hear in the years of medical practice to come, what seems of most help is not an unwarranted optimism, or a belief that suicide can be right or that it is always wrong, but our flawed human capacity to hold mutually contradictory beliefs and voice them with conviction. When the task in hand is to convince a suicidal patient there is value and purpose in life, then thoughts of suicide are best framed as a shared enemy, a corruption of reality, a manifestation of illness – something to be reasoned away, or quelled with medication. But for the families of the dead, who sit later in the same consulting room, those metaphors of distortion and disease can be unhelpful, even hurtful, and what best replaces them are metaphors of victory and redemption, of suffering followed by release.

What I have learned from my suicidal patients

The long read: A GP has minutes to try to convince a person that life is worth living. No wonder they always wonder what more they could have done

www.theguardian.com

 

[LivingToLong]

Yes, I mentioned it here... https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/in-the-news-today.13502/#post-481548

But it's certainly worth another link.

I picked up too on that last paragraph; the way the doctor has learned to frame suicide differently depending on the context. To the person contemplating it, it's to emphasise understanding and the shared struggle. For the family and loved ones coming to terms, it's to take a 'they are at peace now' kind of a line.

Equally, the story tells of overburdened health services and the individuals working within it (who DO care) All of which are struggling to keep up, realise that they are failing and letting people down. It is, to me, just a sad reflection of how we live and what is valued - and, more to the point, not valued. If you can't cope, if you can't keep up, if society deems you of no value, then there really is little help for you and you will fall by the way side. It becomes a lottery, pure chance, as to whether you'll get help the you need.