yes i know how you feel,i was at work not long after i lost my sister,someone joked id rather commit suicide than....i was horrified to say the least,i dont find it funny at all,this is something that is taken to lightly,hope this helps~carrie~

I know what you mean. I don't know if I just never noticed it before my dad died but I definately catch what people say now. Not only do I hate it when I hear people use the phrase so lightly but it's also used in a lot of tv sitcom jokes. I just flip the channel or try to ignore the person talking but it still sticks with me. I wish it would be taken more seriously and that there are more people out there who have been effected by suicide than they think.

I remember a guy coming out of a long meeting and putting his fingers up to his temple and "shooting." I am much more sensitive to the comments now, and have been tempted to really make a point by telling them how I feel and why, but I don't. I don't know why suicide is a punch line. I remind myself that they aren't being cruel to me directly, that they truly don't realize they are being cruel, and by realizing that, I can let it go as bad taste in puns.

I knwo how you feel. Everytime I hear someone saying "Id rather blow my head off..." I feel like screaming at them! I pretend it doesn't bother me... but it does. Even today we had to do a job at a drugstore. Everyone was joking the basement was haunted because years ago someone hung himself there. All I could think was... this is someones son ther were are talking about, someones father, someones lover and they're all joking.

I too understand how you feel. That sort of thing is so common; even I have said in the past: "I wish I had died" or something along those lines. Only after I had lost a son (and now another), did I realize how awful it is to say things like that. It is ignorance (is it bliss?) on their part and sometimes I will make a comment to them like "you really should be more careful when you say things like that - some of us are suffering from the loss of a loved one'. Most people will then apologize...but often will continue to say things in their normal conversations. That is because they have not experienced the horrendous loss and it's aftermath. Isn't it amazing that it is the people who tragedy has struck that have to teach others how to act around them or what not to say? Oh well, it is a good thing, even if it has only changed one person's sensitivity to other's loss...

I'm afraid right now if someone made a joke i would punch them.Sorry but true.I can't even watch tv right now i see blood or a gun i freak.Next time someone makes a joke look them in the eyes and say my love one committed suicide i wonder if they would laugh at your joke and walk away love kalei

I can ignore the verbal comments or jokes, unfortunately people don't think about what they say and they don't mean anything by it. I too have a very hard time with that fingers-as-gun to head or mouth gesture. I'm sure I've even done it myself. Never again. But I try to ignore it, I don't think people are being cruel on purpose. (I'm talking about random people, certainly I'd be horrified if any of my friends or family made a suicide joke) Ignore it if you can- you can't waste the energy getting upset every time someone does something unknowingly thoughtless.

it's so hard to ignore it! My brother hung himself so if someone says anything about hanging a person, it's almost like I relive the nightmare. It's weird.....I don't know, maybe i just need to move on a little more, but I'm not at the point where things like this don't bother me, I wonder if I ever will be. My husband sent me some jokes about suicide when we first started dating (he knew my brother committed suicide but he didn't know how), he laughed, I nearly cried he felt horrible and now tries to help me when others joke about it

Me again. Joking is sometimes just ignorant and careless, and sometimes it's a defense mechanism against that which frightens us. Forgive those who don't know any better. And stay away from those who appear to be specifically cruel. Don't waste your energy on other people's cluelessness.

I'm in the same mindframe as Tweedle. People either don't know, or else they forget, or else they aren't thinking...

Peronally, I'm not really affected by the comments, though I can understand why many of you are.

I sometimes get affected, not all the time, I don't want to make people uncomfortable, they really don't even think. My only sibling, brother hung himself and then one of my dads friends sent him the video of Suddam Hussein getting death by hanging and My dad sent it to me, I was mortified, yet my dad didn't even act like anything, he doesn't let anything out, but I really think he had no idea how I would take it.People are clueless!
Kel

yes. and that goes for molestation jokes too. it pisses me off everytime i hear one.

It's sad really. They don't understand or know any better. Things are so much clearer to "us" now. In the past, I may not have given a passing remark a second thought. Now ever time someone makes a little joke of "shooting themself" it hits me. Our sad reality to live with.

I too know how you feel. It a lot harder. Particually like me since I've tried many time to commit suicide, so when people do stuff it's like a personal attack. I'm here for you if you need to vent. HUGS!

A week after my brother passed due to gun shot my husband and i were watching a movie and there it was no time to turn away and i was in the floor with my husband rocking me and now if my husband thinks it is coming he will say dont look. not really that new to that my best friend took her own life when we were 16 in the same way so even before my brother could not watch stuff like that but after him i cant even hear the words without pain. There is the boy that works with us and some of my coworkers were with me the night i found out so he would not even let people say gun around me they steel dont i love the people i work with.