[dclowd9901]

"...in the past few years, scores of them have come together on social media and in other forums to demand a bigger voice in prevention efforts."

Wha-?

I'm by no means a heartless person. However, I truly believe if you don't want to live any more, that it's your right and your responsibility.

I'm not in your head. I don't know what you're thinking. Most of the time, I won't even know that you're depressed. Many people mask it very well. Why is it my fault that you decided to kill yourself?

[Swizec]

Here's the thing though, depression is a treatable-ish illness. Suicide is a symptom.

Isn't the usual approach to at least treat symptoms, if you can't immediately cure the underlying illness?

[chaired]

I'm sorry, but as a long-time sufferer, I feel compelled to disagree with this viewpoint wherever I see it, to represent people like me. I've been suicidal and depressed on and off for about 20 years. From in here, it doesn't seem anything like an illness at all. The flu is an illness. This is having lived through an absurd number of absurd events, emotionally draining and also traumatic in the long-term. It's having been abused. It's having exhausted yourself pouring all the energy you have into being your best, excelling, achieving, pleasing everyone, but having one dream after another expectation shattered, and having to learn a new framework for living with it. It's cumulative rejection. It's guilt over things you can never undo. It's finding no pleasure in life, only monotony, the grind, suffering, disappointment, and loneliness. It's wondering what's wrong with you that everyone you know got married, have kids, own homes, advance in their careers, buy nicer cars, but your life is still just like a single college student's.

It's not quite my brain, and it's not quite my mind. It's my life, which in a sense is my mind. Which may or may not be my brain. I think that current psychiatry is confused about which level of abstraction is the one to target - not too surprising, since it's circular, almost strange-loopy. Also, people, even most professionals, don't really know what to do or say when the problem really is your life.

[Swizec]

I know how you feel and I definitely would call myself only in remission from depression. It never really goes away, but you learn to live with it. Or at least I did.

If you need someone to talk to, contact info in my profile.

[PeterisP]

Actually, is it known how large proportion of suicides is caused by clinical depression?

I can imagine suicide cases brought on by real hardship such as a hopeless&painful disease; unescapeable debts in a poor society, or cases such as teenagers married to someone against their will with no chance of escape; these wouldn't be caused by an illness but it's hard to figure out on how to estimate the proportions.

[id]

It's not your fault, like it's not your fault when children die of cancer. That doesn't mean we should find ways to prevent it. Most poeple who attempt or commit suicide don't want to die, but rather prefer death over life because they want to put an end to their suffering.

That said, I don't think talking about attempts will help someone who is suicidal in the slightest. If anything it leads to emulation suicides, also known as the Werther effect, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide

[sien]

Copycat suicide is contested.

This has more detail:

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2006/10/werther_effect_copyca...

This podcast discusses the issue:

http://freakonomics.com/2011/08/31/new-freakonomics-radio-po...

[kbatten]

Prevention efforts could include ways to talk about your problems without being afraid that people would treat you differently or force you to do something you didn't want to do. There would have to be an absolute guarantee of privacy of course.