5 ms·

For me, the problem is death is final, while our experience of life is always changing. Reminds me of that documentary I watched about a police officer that wa

by w3mmpp 6y ago

For me, the problem is death is final, while our experience of life is always changing. Reminds me of that documentary I watched about a police officer that was working on that bridge, not sure which, in CA I believe, who have seen a lot of people jump and die. The few that survived (and who were badly hurt result of the jump) explained that as soon as they threw themselves in the void they immediately regretted doing it, and later on, in the hospital, with broken bones everywhere they were happy to have survived it and were pretty much cured of their death wish. Life is so full of unexpected turns.

OnACoffeeBreak 6y ago
The bridge you're trying to remember is probably the Golden Gate bridge. There's a documentary about suicides and attempts from the that bridge called "The Bridge", which for me was riveting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRs-DlYmws4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRs-DlYmws4
- w3mmpp 6y ago
  I don't think so. If I remember correctly, this documentary was more focused on the police unit that was in charge of this bridge (could be the Golden Gate, can't remember even if it was in CA now that I'm thinking), and so one of their task was to intervene in case someone seemed they could want to jump. That particular police officer they were interviewing was a pretty old guy, who spent many decades working on that bridge and so have seen it all. It was a good 5 years ago, maybe even more, so my memory is a bit hazy.
  - paulcole 6y ago
    A documentary focused on the people trying to stop suicide is going to be very anti-suicide. You think they’re going to show people who survived a suicide attempt saying, “dang, really upset I didn’t die.”?
b_t_s 6y ago
Bridge jumpers are self selected group of mostly physically healthy people suffering from the mostly temporary/treatable mental health issue of depression. I think almost nobody would argue that depression should qualify you for assisted suicide. Also, jumping off a bridge is probably the most terrifying method of suicide available. It's practically suicide-by-torture, yup, you're gonna regret that. It's a very, very different scenario than people who are in unrelenting agony and almost certain to die in X weeks/months, saying goodby to their families, going to sleep, and not waking up again. Do you think if you gave them a placebo, let them wake up again and asked "are you _really_ sure about this?" that many of them would change their minds? Probably never been done, but my guess is you'd get very few changed minds.
- meiraleal 6y ago
  > I think almost nobody would argue that depression should qualify you for assisted suicide Did I understand this wrong? Because if not, at least I'm sure I don't agree with that. Depression is the most fixable problem an human-being can fix and is as seasonal as happiness and cheerfulness. Every person that suicides because of depression is an idiot that most of the times leave lots of people hurt.
  - b_t_s 6y ago
    > Did I understand this wrong? Yes, this is a misunderstanding "I think almost nobody would argue that depression should qualify you for assisted suicide".....because everybody would argue that you should see a psychologist, get your depression treated, and go on to live a long and happy life.
    - abellerose 6y ago
      I know some persons go on to take their life after suffering depression for majority of their life. I'm unsure if people should take the stance of discriminating one illness compared to another because it may not always be treatable in the sense of being tolerable for one person compared to another.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
paulcole 6y ago
> For me, the problem is death is final, while our experience of life is always changing. You have no way to know that “our experience of life is always changing.” It doesn’t always get better. Sometimes it keeps getting worse! Sometimes it stays equally awful! What’s true for you and the people you’ve heard talk about it isn’t necessarily true for everyone. Maybe the people who died on the bridge would’ve hated surviving?
- w3mmpp 6y ago
  > You have no way to know that “our experience of life is always changing.” The experience we have is always changing, even if our material condition stay the same. That's what I mean here. > Maybe the people who died on the bridge would’ve hated surviving? Sure, at that moment, but what about 3 days later, or 3 months, who can tell? So, my argument here is in life, nothing is permanent, while death is.
  - paulcole 6y ago
    > my argument here is in life, nothing is permanent Your argument is based only on your own experience and what you’ve chosen to hear from others. Can you acknowledge the possibility that for some people the miserable experience of their life is permanent?
    - meiraleal 6y ago
      But can you acknowledge that these people are probably reinforcing the miserable experience by their own? And that's why it looks like it is permanent?
      - paulcole 6y ago
        No, I can’t. I can acknowledge it might be true for some of those people. But there are a whole fucking lot of people. But when it comes to this, I’m not going to be so arrogant and self-centered as to say something that I believe applies to all of them.

by w3mmpp 6y ago

OnACoffeeBreak 6y ago

The bridge you're trying to remember is probably the Golden Gate bridge. There's a documentary about suicides and attempts from the that bridge called "The Bridge", which for me was riveting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRs-DlYmws4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRs-DlYmws4

w3mmpp 6y ago
I don't think so. If I remember correctly, this documentary was more focused on the police unit that was in charge of this bridge (could be the Golden Gate, can't remember even if it was in CA now that I'm thinking), and so one of their task was to intervene in case someone seemed they could want to jump. That particular police officer they were interviewing was a pretty old guy, who spent many decades working on that bridge and so have seen it all. It was a good 5 years ago, maybe even more, so my memory is a bit hazy.
- paulcole 6y ago
  A documentary focused on the people trying to stop suicide is going to be very anti-suicide. You think they’re going to show people who survived a suicide attempt saying, “dang, really upset I didn’t die.”?

b_t_s 6y ago

Bridge jumpers are self selected group of mostly physically healthy people suffering from the mostly temporary/treatable mental health issue of depression. I think almost nobody would argue that depression should qualify you for assisted suicide. Also, jumping off a bridge is probably the most terrifying method of suicide available. It's practically suicide-by-torture, yup, you're gonna regret that. It's a very, very different scenario than people who are in unrelenting agony and almost certain to die in X weeks/months, saying goodby to their families, going to sleep, and not waking up again. Do you think if you gave them a placebo, let them wake up again and asked "are you _really_ sure about this?" that many of them would change their minds? Probably never been done, but my guess is you'd get very few changed minds.

meiraleal 6y ago
> I think almost nobody would argue that depression should qualify you for assisted suicide Did I understand this wrong? Because if not, at least I'm sure I don't agree with that. Depression is the most fixable problem an human-being can fix and is as seasonal as happiness and cheerfulness. Every person that suicides because of depression is an idiot that most of the times leave lots of people hurt.
- b_t_s 6y ago
  > Did I understand this wrong? Yes, this is a misunderstanding "I think almost nobody would argue that depression should qualify you for assisted suicide".....because everybody would argue that you should see a psychologist, get your depression treated, and go on to live a long and happy life.
  - abellerose 6y ago
    I know some persons go on to take their life after suffering depression for majority of their life. I'm unsure if people should take the stance of discriminating one illness compared to another because it may not always be treatable in the sense of being tolerable for one person compared to another.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

paulcole 6y ago

> For me, the problem is death is final, while our experience of life is always changing. You have no way to know that “our experience of life is always changing.” It doesn’t always get better. Sometimes it keeps getting worse! Sometimes it stays equally awful! What’s true for you and the people you’ve heard talk about it isn’t necessarily true for everyone. Maybe the people who died on the bridge would’ve hated surviving?

w3mmpp 6y ago
> You have no way to know that “our experience of life is always changing.” The experience we have is always changing, even if our material condition stay the same. That's what I mean here. > Maybe the people who died on the bridge would’ve hated surviving? Sure, at that moment, but what about 3 days later, or 3 months, who can tell? So, my argument here is in life, nothing is permanent, while death is.
- paulcole 6y ago
  > my argument here is in life, nothing is permanent Your argument is based only on your own experience and what you’ve chosen to hear from others. Can you acknowledge the possibility that for some people the miserable experience of their life is permanent?
  - meiraleal 6y ago
    But can you acknowledge that these people are probably reinforcing the miserable experience by their own? And that's why it looks like it is permanent?
    - paulcole 6y ago
      No, I can’t. I can acknowledge it might be true for some of those people. But there are a whole fucking lot of people. But when it comes to this, I’m not going to be so arrogant and self-centered as to say something that I believe applies to all of them.