because you can recover from a suicidal episode to a point where you enjoy life again...and it is a different kind of devestation to families when people suicide....I dunno...I've thought a lot about this topic, myself.

Also, as it is a mental illness, the times you wish to do yourself in your thinking may very well be incredibly distorted...and things may not really be so bad.

wow I can see the future! I saw this post coming!
I would have missed alot of good things in my life if I died the first time I tried it, I have since found meds that work farely well, I have 2 wonderful kids and I have actually helped some people through their bad patches. Cancer is a horrible disease that destriys the body, bp can be dealt with and the body be intact

I don't belive it is right to end your life, terminal illness is different.

I think suicide is a tragedy that can be avoided, where cancer or ms cannot :))

Yes, it is our right to try to end our suffering through diligent medical treatment. It is not "our right" to end our suffering through suicide. If we are commiting suicide purely because we dont want to suffer it anymore, I believe it is wrong. If we are commiting suicide without good mental capacity in depression, then I believe suicide takes place out of the inability to process right from wrong. It isnt a matter of having the right but a matter of knowing right from wrong. We can be mentally incapacitated through mental illness or a dibilitating physical illness that has ravished us mentally to the point of loosing sight of right from wrong. Again, God know our heart. It is in our heart that lies the true directive for our choice. Hugs

Is your quesstion for real?

I did not give myself life and feel I have no right to take it. Though I am a believer, it isn't even logical from a scientific standpoint TO ME. The circle of life and general sequence of existence...birth to death... at no point, in any species, is the end SELF inflicted... my HO

#7 what about when whales beach themselves? ;)

Good point Lou, they must have heard the Japanese were comming for them and would rather commit suicide than end up in their stomach :((

lou2- tragic, yes, but I don't think it is their INTENT to become stranded and thus lipstick...

birth, school, work, death...

random Lou : do whales beach themselves because they are ill and afraid of drowning?

Chronic, not terminal. That is the difference.

Yes, I believe it is a person's right to end their own suffering. When I was suicidal I thought I was doing everyone a favor by ridding the world of the poison I was spreading. At the time it felt like it would be a selfless, rather than selfish, act. I could not have lived another week in that hell, no matter what. Thank god for drugs.

Bi-Polar is a chronic illness because it can not be cured only treated. This is very different from terminally ill.
To be honest though I do think it is your right to end your suffering. There is no god for me no afterlife, just an end to the pain. And frankly, I desire and deserve an end to this crap I have to live with in my head and heart. Maybe that makes me different from the regular bi-polar.
But yes I am suicidal, and I feel I have a right to end the pain.
What I do not have a right to do is hurt my children, or those who care about me. I wish I could get their permission, but I can't ask for it, and even if I did they wouldn't give it to me. I wish they would look at it as euthenasia. So that is why I fight the urge, the desire. That is why I take my meds and spend every ounce of energy trying to maintain some level of normalcy. That's why I wear the "mask" to work, and not let people in "real life" know me. Because I have responsibilities, people depend on me. And this in turn causes me to be and feel alone.
So yes, I want to die, and I think that would be ok, if it wasn't for the pain it would cause others. I often think of a car accident, or a plane falling on me, a heart attack, or anything that would give me what I want without me feeling or being guilty of hurting those that I care for.
Is that so strange?