When it comes to suicide prevention, honestly my thoughts/feelings are mixed, or at least not very straight-forward. On the one hand, personally knowing the incalculable anguish, despair and darkness that precipitates suicide, there is still part of me that continues to hold the position of 'how can we honestly demand that someone to continue to live in that?' When a person is in great physical agony and they have a physical illness that is quickly leading to death, we often pray that God will take them quickly to relieve them of the unbelievable pain that is unavoidable as long as they are living in this world. So I have to ask why we completely disregard that reasoning when a person's pain is mental/emotional.
On the other hand, when I think of suicide prevention, I think it isn't about preventing the actual act of suicide. If that's our goal, then I lean towards the previously stated view. Alternatively, if suicide prevention is about doing everything we can to make it so a person never has to even get to a point where they see suicide as the only viable option remaining... if our efforts are about fighting FOR their life, rather than AGAINST their death... then I am as big of an advocate for suicide prevention as there ever will be.
I think history has repeatedly shown that fighting for something is usually significantly more difficult than fighting against something. Fighting for something means extensive deliberation, rigorous honesty, idealistic belief and hope... it's messy, it's outnumbered, it's idealistic, its future is uncertain and hope is on the line. And yet it alone contains all potential for change, forward movement and progress.
Our goal should not be to prevent the act of suicide- to make people stay alive. It should be to enable them to live- to do whatever it takes to offer a life that they can (and even want to) live.
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