- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
I don’t know the context and believe the video was taken down. I also know nothing about this person or his history.
But from how the comment is described, it sounds like something you’d hear from a depressed person who has had significant suicidal ideation. They are often critical of themselves for NOT being able to go through with it. It’s something I’d expect from someone who has come very close but then encounters fear or the self preservation instinct and thinks that they just aren’t “strong” enough to overcome this. Whereas you hear people in the general population describe people thinking about or completing suicide as being “cowards,” or “weak” or “selfish.”
Suicide is complicated, it can involve a variety of complex motivations and different risk factors. But we shouldn’t be glorifying it as needing “strengh” to complete. We also shouldn’t be shaming suicide as that may make people thinking about it less to reach out for help or feel like they can talk about their experience.
This is the entire quote:
"I meet you and I find out how real you are and how transparent you are and how strong you are. And it's funny because we got into a conversation a couple months ago with, you know, other people that have really struggled with thoughts of suicide, to the point that really kind of making the decision that today is the day I'm going to take my life. And it's funny because a lot of people out there would say, you know, people who kill themselves are not strong- they're weak. However, it's completely the opposite. I'm not strong enough to kill myself, I know that. Because I went to that point, Gracie. You know what I'm saying? And it's crazy to think that way, but you gotta think about how incredibly strong you have to be to actually get to a point where you say 'Ok, I'm done. I'm out. I do not see a light at the end of the tunnel'."
I agree with you that it sounds like he may have a kind of suicide ideation- which is similar in a way to glorification, but slightly different. Glorification implies praising or adoration, which is an important distinction to make here.
Suicide is absolutely complicated! That's why this topic is so tough to talk about here, especially when on a forum. Again, I am not trying to justify or agree with this man's words, just pointing out that this statement - and entire topic - is not so black and white.