[qxzw]

"...my mother told me she thought he’d known he was having heart attacks but chose to ignore them as a way of killing himself. This, I think, is putting an overly heroic sheen on it, but the interpretation doesn’t surprise me. My mother worshiped my father, and there’s something noble about a slow, plausibly deniable suicide. "

I find it to be an extreme form of cowardice. I had a couple of close family members who always used to 'emotionally blackmail' when something wasn't how they wanted it. And it wasn't manipulation - they genuinely suffered. It was horrible. Like an inescapable black cloud. My uncle did it for so long, ignored his health issues on purpose that he eventually died. He wasn't even too old. I don't even remember exact cause, but it was something simple, couple of days in hospital and some pills would have made it go away. I had similar inclinations, but adopting stoicism helped me curb it.

[jasonmp85]

I liked the part where you call people suffering from mental illness "cowards". The part where you blithely assert some millennia-old facile philosophy can solve depression was pretty good, too.

[qxzw]

Maybe I didn't express myself accurately (English is not my mother tongue). I don't think depression is simple thing, banality to be solved by philosophy. I don't know how you read that from my post. I said it helped me _curb_ some instincts to 'let myself go' when things aren't going my way. Regarding 'cowards' - again, you misunderstood. I meant that people who take the slow suicide path are cowards. It's a subset of mental illnesses as a much bigger sphere.

1. It takes courage to take the blows life gives you and keep going, ("Do it for her" photo) 2. It takes courage to actively take your life, hurt yourself physically 3. It _doesn't_ take any courage to just let yourself go and fade away

I've had close family members 2 and 3

[dkarl]

The idea that suicide is selfish and cowardly is a helpful one for people who take too much responsibility onto themselves after a loved one's suicide. It's meant to balance out the perspective of people who can only see their own failure to help. It doesn't make much sense outside that context.