Greg's Blurty

WHAT A DUMP!!!!
I know that a lot of you are against suicide and maybe it's for a good reason. It might be the worst possible thing you could ever do, because there is an afterlife and suicide somehow messes it up. On the other hand, it might be the best thing you could ever do because there is no afterlife to worry about or there is and it doesn't matter how you get there.

For me, I don't know what happens when you die but it frightens me that suicide looks, feels and sounds like a scam. Just kill yourself and all your problems are instantly over. It sounds a lot like a rent a center or payday loan scam to me. No hassles, no worries, just a quick clean get away with no drawbacks. I haven't found any free lunches yet and I find it hard to believe that suicide is one.

On the other hand, I could be wrong. The Pope even said that suicide is OK...well, alright, he didn't exactly endorse it but he did say that the church was wrong for all those eons when they were saying that suicide was an automatic E-Ticket trip to Hell. God understands the need for suicide now and doesn't judge you for it...well, He always did but apparently the wires got crossed somewhere and the message never got through right.

I don't believe that there is a God and if I did, I'm pretty sure I would find it hard to believe that He speaks through a guy in a pointy hat. I could be wrong about that, too, but one thing I am sure about is that this is not a good place to live. And around 50% of college students agree with me:

Half of college students consider suicide
Survey finds widespread problem demands new approach to treatment

MSNBC and NBC News
updated 53 minutes ago

AUSTIN, Texas - More than half of American college students have considered suicide at some points in their lives, a new survey reveals.

In the survey, results of which were presented Sunday at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston, more than 5 percent of respondents reported actually having attempted suicide at least once. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for college students.

The survey, part of a wider-ranging continuing study on student suicidal behaviors being conducted by David Drum, a professor of education psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, questioned 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students at 70 U.S. institutions. The results raise the startling suggestion that suicidal thoughts could be a common experience on par with substance abuse, depression and eating disorders, Drum said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26272639/

Another thing I'm sure about is that it's stupid to treat suicide as a mental illness and do nothing but "treat" it. Have you ever talked to anyone in the mental health industry? That's the first point. How many of them actually help anyone? Ten percent, maybe?

OK, so even if they had a point, they don't have nearly enough competent soldiers to even attempt to fight this war. They are good con artists, though, so they will still be able to sell their snake oil as if it were a real miracle cure. So let's scrap treatment and do something that might actually help.

Like make this a world that fewer people feel a compelling need to leave. And we could start by not telling the people who are sane enough to realize what a horrible place this is that they are crazy. I love hearing people talk about suicides. They almost always say things like, "She needed help, why didn't she ask for it?"

I can answer that one. She didn't need any of the help you were willing to offer. What she needed was a world that's more enjoyable to live in. And she didn't want or need for you to call her insane. In fact, that may have been a reason she left. She's a gambler, not a crazy person and you won't even give her that much respect now that she's gone. Think about that for a while. Please. Especially if you are anti-suicide.

And yes, we can't change all the things that make this place a dump (Bonus points if you recognize that paraphrased quote and in fact, I'm going to make the unparaphrased quote the title so it'll be really easy for you) but look at all the things we do purpose that we could easily change.

I know people who live in New York City who go to small towns to renew their driver's licenses (Cooperstown is popular for that because of the Baseball Hall Of Fame) because they would rather drive for a few hours than spend the day standing in line. Does it have to be that way? Shouldn't you be able to renew your license in a reasonable amount of time without having to leave the city?

That's just one thing and some people would call it a small thing but to a lot of people, it's not small at all. And it should be changed. And multiply it by the millions of other things we could change. Then, maybe the stress of things we can't change---broken hearts, the wrath of mother nature, the continuing popularity of American Idol, etc etc etc---would be a lot more bearable to a lot more people and the suicide rate would go down.

I could write about this all night but it boils down to: Make this a better, easier place to live and fewer people will want to leave it.

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: Coast To Coast AM----Sunday August 17th, 2008