Life or Death?

So. You want to die? Ok by me. I love you. I’ll miss you. But I’m ok if you want to go. Just bear in mind a few gems of advice.

1. Make sure you die.

According to the American Association of Suicidology, 92-95% of suicides result in survival. While the Association doesn’t talk of the survivors, let me tell you something about it – from experience. The wound will hurt for months. It was a suicide attempt, after all. The scar may even show.

The mental scar won’t show. But boy, will it hurt!

The feeling of failure will haunt you for life. Only if you are super-lucky and super-persistent will you find happiness that obliterates the memory of a failed suicide attempt. Plus the reason for trying hasn’t gone away. So that headache gets carried forward.

So – make sure you die if you must attempt suicide.

2. Make sure you leave a suicide note behind.

So nobody agonizes for the rest of their life, wondering about their own contribution to the event.

And please, don’t blame anyone in that note. Others can try to drive you over the edge, only you can actually do it.

And remember, for every 4 people who try to push you over, there will be at least one who wants you around. Those who don’t care for you won’t notice if you die and won’t care if you blame them. Those who care for you will never want you to die no matter how much they hurt you.

Sure, find an escape if needed – you owe it to yourself. But not through death. Find another job, another city, another set of friends, another means of escape. Who knows? Happiness may just be around the corner. Why not wait a bit?

3. I won’t try to belittle your drivers to suicide. All of them will be genuine. All will be extreme enough to drive you to think of suicide. I too had strong reasons when I tried.

But you know what? Most things lose their relevance over time. Sure, some memories never go away. But they do get layered by fresher ones.

Just like an oyster creating a pearl.

Our experiences aren’t all bad. The really terrible ones never go away, but do become dim over time. Someday, even if not today.

Why not wait back and build your own pearl?