Quote Originally Posted by Heartless Angel View Post
It is selfish in most cases (occasionally someone may have reasons that make it otherwise, but those cases are few and far between). It leaves your problems behind for others to deal with, and it leaves others to mourn for your death. It relieves you of pain, but creates more for others you leave behind. This being said, I don't believe those who contemplate and commit suicide are doing so selfishly.

When you stop and think about it with clarity of thought and comletely within your right mind, it seems selfish and even stupid, but there's the problem. People contemplating suicide usually aren't in their right mind, and their thoughts aren't clear. They're usualy severely depressed and are in an abnormal mental state. I don't say this from an outside mechanical view by any means, I used to have issues with depression, and at one point was contemplating suicide. At the time, its effect on those around was about the last thing on my mind, and the thought process that lead me to the conclusion that suicide was the answer, in retrospect seems completely idiotic to me. At the time it made perfect sense and didn't seem selfish at all. I can only assume it's the same for others in the situation.

When you look at these people from an outside view, you may see selfishness and stupidity, but if you look at it from their perspective, it makes sense. They're not trying to be selfish, they're not trying to push their problems onto everyone else. They're not thinking normally, and should be offered help.
I can agree with this to a full extent. You are right on all counts.

In addition to this, there is a huge difference between those who actually commit suicide and those who just have thoughts. If you can catch these signs early, you might be able to bring the person back. These thoughts can grow and manifest if you don't. It's like a progressive disease (for lack of a better explanation). As the depression worsens, so does ones willingness to live. If they're going through this alone, chances are, their mind will tell them it's the right thing to do. Meanwhile, from the perspective from those looking in who would do anything to help could see it as being selfish for a, not seeing what they are doing to themselves; and b, not seeing that there really are people who care about them.