Ok, I've been reading a lot of people's stuff, and I noticed that a lot of people have been talking very lightly about suicide. I keep seeing phrases like, " I was depressed today. I was being sad and snapping at people. I'm going to go kill myself now." I've seen away messages like, "Suicide, call and stop me." And to say the truth, I'm getting sick of it.

First of all, I know that not everyone uses it for attention, and I understand that some people really do half-mean it in a sense. This is the too-many-tests-in-one-day kind of suicidal-ness. This is when people are pissed off and overwhelmed, and they really do mean it for a while. This is different. This isn't what I'm talking about; so if you have too many tests one day, don't get offended.

For some reason, some people seem to think that suicide is something like an easy way to get attention. If one goes around threatening to kill oneself, suddenly fifty thousand people will flock to ones side and one will be happy and popular. "Depression" leads to "suicide" threats, leads to attention, leads to friends, leads to happiness, or whatever. Why is it that simple?

A brief digression to explain a concept: suppose some guy beats up a little kid. It’s morally wrong, because the little kid is little, and he can’t defend himself and the guy has an unfair advantage. It’s cheap because it says very little about the guy’s beating up abilities. If this person takes pride in his fighting skills, he would go out and beat up 300-pound men, instead of little kids, and if he resorted to a little kid, then he must not be very good. So, there’s the difference. Cheapness is a purely arrogant type of thing that I define as doing something that makes one look bad at the thing one takes even a little pride in. If I think I’m good at running, but I run really slow, and yet I walk up to the person behind me and go “Ohh, I beat you!” that’s cheap. Does it make sense?

Soo …what really bothers me, is when people obviously anticipate the attention they're going to get. When they speak of suicide as an everyday occurrence. Especially in cases like the away message. "Suicide, call and stop me." If you want to be stopped, stop yourself, dumbass. Seriously. It's degrading to one's own sense of worth. It’s cheap to use something that you know is going to obviously attract attention, because it suggests that you can’t do it another way. "I'm not interesting enough, so I'll say something that freaks people out, and they'll notice me."

So, I accuse all the “routinely” suicidal people: none of you would be actually capable of carrying it out. I accuse all of you of never even having the intention to kill yourselves. And, I accuse you of being too weak to go through with it. Am I advocating suicide? Maybe. But that's irrelevant. I am advocating that people actually stop to think about what they're suggesting. And if you want attention, go dye your hair in erratic colors.

And what about the people reacting? Are their reactions logical? I think there are really two main reactions: People who are sort of freaked out by the whole thing, who go “Omg suicide!” and try to talk people out of it regardless of the circumstances. And there’s the other group, who mainly do the threatening in order to get attention. And, I suppose they usually proceed the same way when being threatened AT, in a fair tradeoff. I’ll kill myself on odd days, and you call kill yourself on even days.

For all future references of the word "friend", I define a friend to be an individual with some emotional attachment, or some stake in one's wellbeing.

Imagine that your friend, whom you really care about (and probably expect to return the aformentioned feelings) tells you that their life sucks and they’re going to kill himself or herself. Assuming this friend really thought everything out (and they're not just looking for attention), what they are really saying is: there is nothing on this world for me to live for. This implies that your friend does not, indeed, care enough about YOU to go on living. So, what your friend, whom you CARE about, is essentially saying is: I don't give a damn about you. Therefore, when your friend tells you they want to kill his or herself, it's an insult. People need to learn to take it like one.

Next scenario: Imagine that you don't expect your friend to be emotionally attached to you in any way, and yet you really care about them, and they tell you they’re going to kill themselves. Assuming that they’ve really thought it out and aren’t just looking for attention, then their life probably DOES suck quite a bit. In this case, asking your friend to not to kill his or herself is selfish. It’s prolonging their suffering for whatever YOU get out of the friendship. Would a good friend prolong someone’s suffering unnecessarily? Again, in this scenario, there is no reason for the person being “threatened” to stop the suicidal individual.

Last case: If you really don’t care about your friend, and wouldn’t know the difference if they lived or died, you don’t have to go to great lengths to appear altruistic and try to talk them out of it, because the people who did care about their friends (and actually thought it through logically) probably wouldn’t have done so anyway.

In conclusion, I think that people need to think about the significance of things they’re suggesting. I’m not trying to get anyone to stop doing anything. I’m just ranting, because I’m pissed off. If I made my point to someone, I’ll be surprised. If I look down on you, this may explain why.