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Suicide is NOT an Option

So as of Sunday I am now witnessing a third parent bury their child.

2 of these three teenagers died as a result of suicide. The other from drunk driving, although, he was not the one behind the wheel.

Uncertainty, doubt, lack of acceptance, rejection, anxiety, we ALL go through this. I wonder if these two boys knew we we would all be willing to help them? That help was not withheld.

The real tragedy is that two of the boys were best friends. Cody committed suicide just over two years ago, and Anthony just this weekend.

If ever you are feeling so terrible that suicide becomes a viable alternative in your mind, please keep in mind, your friends, family, co-workers, schoolmates. If you just open up to someone, you can spare the agony and torture that will be left in the wake of your death. And when I say agony and torture I really mean it. My friend, the boys mother was handcuffed and taken to the psych ward of the hospital after learning about her youngest sons death. She was going to kill herself, because she couldn't bare the pain of loss. She loved him so much. He was her baby.

He was a good person. Loved gaming and was a really tech wizard. He will be missed.


I'm just posting this because I know there's a lot of kids here. And a lot of those kids might be depressed, or sometimes feeling like they can't carry on, or that nobody loves them. It's simply not true. You are loved, you are somebodies baby, whatever your age. Persevere, for the sake of those who love you. Because what is left behind is not relief, but, suffering.

Atlantis

Your entire body shakes you when laugh,
As if your sense of humour was built on a fault line
And the coast of your heart falls into the ocean of yourself
And I’m left looking for this Atlantis.Left looking for this place
That exists in the stories told by old men,
Who were there when mathematics assured them.
Their willingness to believe
Was greater than their determination to dismiss
I’m left looking for Atlantis.

Regardless of the scientist that insists
My efforts would be better spent
Unearthing clues to where the wild things went.

Try as it might,
Faith can’t put a dent fact.
So we must settle for science re-enact the world,
As if the universe was curled around this globe.

And if we consider that the universe is never ending
Then we’re not even a microbe.
We’re like a death threat from a pacifist,
We’re nothing.

But the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that:
“Nothing is fo’ shizzle”.
And the interesting thing about that
Is that it ensures that the principle itself can’t even be a fact.

But we still act as though
This time we can see the forest through the trees.
Regardless of the soft wood lumber levies,
We fall in line like reforested pine.

It’s all straight rows
Were everything grows a little less wild,
A little more humdrum,
Ho, hum.

We come from the mentality
That rarely sees the horror in symmetry
Or the beauty in non-conformity.
We insist that for us,
Everything must be clear cut.

But what about philosophy?
What about the tree that fell in the forest
That no one was around to hear?
It’s a little less clear,
A little more deep.

Deep like,
If Oprah Winfrey farts in a bathtub
And no bubbles come to the surface,
Is there an alternate universe
Where the price of gas is cheap?

Possible,
But we can’t prove it,
Any more than we can prove
That light can move fast enough
To stop a monster hiding in the closet.

We deposit our faith in fear
But clear our minds to the possibility that
Maybe we as adults,
Secretly sometimes still get scared of the dark.
Things that go bump in the night.

And I can’t prove that I’ve ever loved anyone,
But despite the smoking
And the overweight body
I want to grow old with you.

Go through muscle and joint pains
To the point that every time it rains
We can feel it in our knees.
Get arthritis so bad,
That every time we move
We sound like two bowls of Rice Krispies.

We’re all “Snap, Crackle and pop”
But we still take the time to stop,
And take the time.
I’m looking for Atlantis.

Letting faith turn this fiction into fact
As if I tracked this missing continent for decades,
And all I know so far
Is that it is somewhere under water.

I’m looking for clues in the most blurry photos of UFOs
And thinking,
If alien are so smart,
Than why don’t they start making their spaceships look like airplanes?
That way we’d just point to the sky and say:
“An airplane, how common place and not at all suspect.”

We’re all shipwrecked on this idea
That everything has to be explained.
But maybe we just need to believe
That lemmings jump off cliffs to prove that they love us.

And sure,
That sacrifice is as empty as the box of condoms
That politicians used when they thought they could fuck us.
But it is nice to believe that somebody up there
Cares enough to plummet onto jagged, back-breaking rocks
In an attempt to tells us,
We’re beautiful.

Tell us that as far as life goes,
Our finger prints are like snowflakes.
We leave them on everything
But they melt in the time it takes to touch someone’s tongue.

But if we’re lucky,
Maybe we’re remembered
Along with the sunken cities of a lost continent.

This is for each child
Who is a monument to the one’s who came before.
Maybe the best we can hope for
Is that those we leave behind find comfort in knowing
That we’re born out of love,
And not science.

That biology explains the how,
Love explains the why,
So in the event of our deaths
We hereby bequeath all of these words to you.

And they are only meant to say that
Uncertainty is something everyone goes through.
And there is not much in the way of proof
But believe me, we loved you.

We held our breaths for your first step,
Your first word.
We laughed when it finally occurred to you,
Lemons are sour.

This is for every time
Love becomes the finest minute and the darkest hour.
This if for those who scour the streets
Wondering where the wild things went.
For the believers who leant us their madness.
This is for everyone we miss.

And this is for the children who were lost.
Sadness is nothing more than the cost of being able to smile
Once in a while.
And grief is the trial we stand to offer evidence
That your finger prints were left on our hearts
And our skin,

And in terms of proof,
Love can be demonstrated in giving.
Our lives consist of the efforts we give
In swimming towards the lost continent
Where you are rumoured to be living.
 

Spoo

Sponsor

I'm not going to share my opinions on suicide; I would sound like a major asshole without a doubt. So for the sake of decency I give the friends and family my condolences, for what it's worth, and hope that someday they will be able to heal.
 
I would just like to say that just getting to know someone can stop a suicide. I dont know how certain cases are; but in my case all i really wanted was someone to talk to.

I'm not going to share my opinions on suicide; I would sound like a major asshole without a doubt.
I just want to say this and it might not have anything to do with what you said. It takes a lot for someone to even hurt themselves and a lot more to kill yourself. You literally are going against every instinct. Suicide may be not be the right way but don't ever call someone who went against their basic survival nature a coward; its not true.
 

Jason

Awesome Bro

Yeah... suicide IS an option, it may not be the right one, but it really depends what somebody is going through. Personally I don't have any sympathy for people who even consider suicide since I think it's a really dumb thing to do, it's basically an easy way (Albeit a hard decision to make) out of a really bad situation, but that doesn't mean it should be chosen.
 
Jason":3f5tbmup said:
Personally I don't have any sympathy for people who even consider suicide since I think it's a really dumb thing to do, it's basically an easy way (Albeit a hard decision to make) out of a really bad situation, but that doesn't mean it should be chosen.
Tell somebody with serious depression who is contemplating suicide that you feel no sympathy for them. Go the fuck ahead. I bet that'll work out real well.

What people don't seem to understand about depression is that you don't think straight. We as humans think logically and know in our gut that suicide is not the solution. But when you're depressed, you just want an escape. Nothing makes you happy, or worth doing. It's a slippery slope; it's easy to fall into deep depression, where you're so constantly exhausted, 24 hours a day, and your mind literally cannot comprehend why you should bother to keep living. It's an awful, awful thing, and it's incredibly disgusting to hear people say "Suck it up," or "You're a coward." These are not solutions - this is how you make the problem worse.

Think about it. If somebody is even considering taking their own lives, they are not thinking straight. They are making bad decisions. Normal logic will not work to convince them otherwise.
 

Jason

Awesome Bro

doodiestar":2lb4ydjh said:
Jason":2lb4ydjh said:
Personally I don't have any sympathy for people who even consider suicide since I think it's a really dumb thing to do, it's basically an easy way (Albeit a hard decision to make) out of a really bad situation, but that doesn't mean it should be chosen.
Tell somebody with serious depression who is contemplating suicide that you feel no sympathy for them. Go the fuck ahead. I bet that'll work out real well.

What people don't seem to understand about depression is that you don't think straight. We as humans think logically and know in our gut that suicide is not the solution. But when you're depressed, you just want an escape. Nothing makes you happy, or worth doing. It's a slippery slope; it's easy to fall into deep depression, where you're so constantly exhausted, 24 hours a day, and your mind literally cannot comprehend why you should bother to keep living. It's an awful, awful thing, and it's incredibly disgusting to hear people say "Suck it up," or "You're a coward." These are not solutions - this is how you make the problem worse.

Think about it. If somebody is even considering taking their own lives, they are not thinking straight. They are making bad decisions. Normal logic will not work to convince them otherwise.

Somehow I feel I've struck a nerve here lol...

There are more options than suicide for someone who is depressed, and even if they're not thinking straight, the idea of actually inflicting pain is one thing, but actually killing yourself really is dumb. I don't care what your response is, it's 100% stupid to kill yourself under any sort of circumstances (Well, maybe there's extreme circumstances like if someone says if you don't kill yourself they'll kill your entire family or something *shrugs*).

And just for the record I've been in cycles of deep depression quite a few times, more than you'd think, it's a common side effect of my medication (It's also one of the reasons I'm hoping they'll switch my medication to something less... taxing, soon), random mood swings and they can get pretty severe, but never once have I thought "Fuck the world I'm going to kill myself!", no it was more like "Fuck the world I'm going to ignore everyone and everything and shout at anyone that tries talking to me and probably get violent", but never once did I, or would I, think about harming myself, even though I go through the same emotional state where I can't think straight either, that just doesn't pop into my head at all. Obviously I've been depressed over other things too, not just because of the random mood swings caused by medication, I've been depressed from relatives dying, friends dying, getting dumped, pets dying, and lots of other stuff too.

Oh also just for the record, I never said anything about being a coward, I just said it's the easy way out, and there are other options...
 
@jbrist: Just because you've never felt it doesn't mean contemplating suicide is "dumb." Plenty of incredibly intelligent people from top colleges and universities have sadly considered, or even attempted, suicide. Sure, it's an illogical decision, but I must agree with dev that it's belittling and insulting to call it "dumb," much like it is to call people "gay" or "retarded."



That said, life can get difficult sometimes, but it's still worth living. I wanted to pass on this link: http://justlittlethings.net/ in case any of you have friends or relatives that are feeling down. I've heard the site has actually saved a number of lives.
 

moog

Sponsor

I was diagnosed with anxiety this whole semester and was on high doses of Zoloft. It initally makes you feel depressed beyond belief, and I was going through a BRUTAL relationship. Im so glad I had someone to talk to (my best friend at school) because if not I would have totally pushed myself into a corner. Things are better now, but I also urge anyone who is depressed to just open up. Feels good man
 
It's not really about telling a suicidal kid you feel sympathy for them. It's rather more helping them deal with their issues and letting them know things might get better eventually. I contemplated suicide when I was a teenager, when my family was having some serious issues. All I really wanted back then was for things to get better and for someone in my family to talk to me. Strangely enough, one of the things that did make me feel better was when one of my brothers confronted my teenage angst and he beat the shit out of me. That made me realized someone truly cared. Also, not everyone who's suicidal shows signs of clinical depression. Sometimes people will simply commit suicide because they think it is the best option. These people don't ask for second opinions.
 
It's really kind of interesting seeing the conversation which has started up here. I wonder, how many are speculating, and how many have actually been affected directly by a friend or family member taking their own life?
 
As someone who was in that place, I think with most things, you wouldn't know if you weren't there. I didn't, because I had an epitome or whatever, I don't know, and realised that contemplating suicide gives you a free reign on the rest of your life: if you were going to kill yourself anyway, you might as well do absolutely anything you want in life, make the decisions you were scared to make, leave a bad home, move countries, start living how you want to live or whatever, because whatever happens cannot be worse than not existing any more. It's why talk about the afterlife is dangerous, I am not saying there isn't one, but that since we do not and cannot know, we cannot tell people there is one because it leads to suicide being ok.

But even so, I was there, and considering how it will affect other people doesn't even come to mind - it is all about you personally and honestly, the rest of the world disappears and -

It is not a nice place to be and being caged in on your own doesn't help. You need other people around you but don't know how to get them to you, or don't have the strength or courage to seek them out. If that is dumb then fine, I was dumb.

The way I see it now though, whatever I do in life, whatever it's results, if I end up living in a gutter or beaten up in the street or whatever, it cannot possibly be worse than what I was going to do that night. Maybe we should be explaining that concept to people instead of filling their heads with ideas that there is a better life after death, and that instead they really can shape their own lives in this one, not having to be a pushover and not having to conform to other people's standards, not to be called dumb or their troubles passed off as stupid.

I don't know. All I know is I sought people, I found people, and I am no longer alone; it's something I would never have done before that night and it changed me.

But before I was changed-

You don't know what that's like if you weren't there. (And, no, you don't get to say "I was there and didn't think about killing myself", because guess what, what means you weren't fucking there).
 
Jbrist: Just because you are depressed doesn't mean you are suicidal those arent even close to the same things really. You were depressed because of a certain medication. But you still probably had a good support system and you had people to talk to. In my case; I had no one to talk to. I had been bullied to the point where literally almost every person hated me (i had just moved schools and was in 8th grade when someone made a nasty rumor that i was some baby hanger [it got so bad that after i confronted the person about it she decided to write a fake note to the principle that i threatened her life and was taken out of class by the police and deemed as a threat and was suspended]. I didn't want to bother my family because they were going through some financial situations (I actually thought that I would help my family in the long run by not being there). This pretty much killed any social skills i developed (which wasn't much because i was bullied before too) and created a sort of wall where i didn't even want to get close to someone for 5 years simply because every time i would open up to someone they didn't really give a shit and thought it was fun to mess with my life. They took advantage of someone who was different and just used me to get further on the social ladder. So yeah, unless you've been in that corner without anyone to talk to except for people on this site for almost 4 years then you'd understand.
 

Jason

Awesome Bro

I DID say that my depression doesn't only come from my medication lol, and for your information I was bullied quite often through primary school and the first year of secondary school for various reasons, quite often I'd skip school because of it, and yeah it did cause depression, but I'd never have thought about ending my own life because of it... eventually my depression turned into anger and I stepped up to the bullies, got into a fight with two of them, surprisingly I won because up until that point I hadn't been in many fights in my life anyway, and from there my school life was great. I never told anyone about it at home because my family aren't the close kind who talk problems out, I'd say we're all pretty ignorant when it comes to stuff like that, I'd have gotten a "Shut up and suck it up" response from my mam and dad, and my big brother was too busy being popular to be bothered, y'know playing the usual big brother role of not caring. I did let it all get to me, and I really didn't have anyone to talk to at the time, except some of my mates but they're not the emotional kind either (Being emotional in my school would get you beaten up lol) so there was no help there either.

So basically... tl;dr I HAVE been in that position, where killing myself COULD have been the easier option, but I managed to get out of it by turning it into anger and going bat shit crazy on two guys, lol. Never had any problems since then though, except the usual mood swings every month or so (Like having a period LOL) from my pills.
 
I've been there. Plenty of times.

Been abused, beaten, neglected. Was homeless for a while. Have had "friends" who showed their true colors by abandoning me on birthdays or by dating the only person I was interested in or by spreading my secrets around school. Had Christmases and birthdays without any gifts. Went through a very nasty divorce. Suffered spousal abuse. Dad died, and no one told me until 6mo after he was buried. Grew up surrounded by drug-abusers and peddlers. Used by/cheated on by guy who took my virginity. Lived in shitty places, unsanitary places, roach-infested places, places that were humiliating to admit I lived in. Experienced others' terminal illnesses and/or deaths of a lot of people I knew or loved. Suffered my own medical problems that ended up costing me a fortune and scarred me permanently. Had my entire college fund stolen by my grandfather so I couldn't afford to go to college. Experienced nastiness in people that should never be experienced by anyone. Dove deep into the depths of human misery. Turned to drinking at an early age. Turned to pills. It made everything worse.

My whole childhood+teen years+young adulthood ... It was all just a big fat war, fraught with battle after battle, with very little respite between. I'd experience a happy month, where very little bad happened, and then BOOM CRASH BANG, someone would die or get sick or arrested or decide to start beating the daylights out of me, and everything'd shatter and I'd be sent, sprawling, trying to figure out what the fuck just happened, or how to make it stop.

There were many nights where I couldn't think of a way out. My problems felt endless, unavoidable, insurmountable.
All I wanted was for someone to just say, "Hey, don't worry. I'm here for you."
When I was starving as a kid, other kids would sometimes give me the parts of their lunch they didn't want, and that was cool. When I was homeless, a few friends let me crash at their places and eat some of their food once in a while, or shower, and that was very appreciated. Eventually, my boyfriend's parents let me rent part of a room for $150/month, and that saved my life for a while.

But what meant the most to me? When my best friend just let me break down and cry on her and talk her ear off one day in a library of all places. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I had decided on suicide to the point that I had actually written my "goodbye" letter and had set a time. But the weight of it crushed me so hard that something small & stupid set me off, and I just broke down into a sobbing mess. She didn't say much. I didn't need her to. I just needed someone to listen and ... Well, understand.

And, I made it out. Today, my life is 100% fine & dandy. I have nothing important to mourn or worry about.

Being -ACTUALLY- suicidal--like, truly at the EDGE-- isn't about depression so much as it is about being at a point where there is NOTHING in the world that you think could POSSIBLY save you. There is no more joy, or any idea that you could ever know joy ever again. It's about being in so much pain, all to burden on your own, that you see no other alternatives. You feel like you are a burden on yourself and those around you.

And, in most cases, all people on this brink need is just someone to listen to them, and to try to understand. They don't need answers or solutions, they just need someone to LISTEN. Really LISTEN. But this is so very hard to find, more often than not.


Suicide isn't a human-only concept. Animals do it as well, though usually for simpler reasons. When many animals become gravely ill or they break something important, or even when they realize there isn't enough food to go around (in social animals), they stop eating, and wither away. I've heard of pets that stop eating or caring after a lifelong owner dies. They accept that there's no point in trying anymore and give up.


It's always an option. It's just not a good one. There is always a chance that things will get better. It's just so very hard to get people in that deep of a hole to look up and see sky.
 
Aw, Ven!

My life was also rough, enough said. Had some very similar experiences to yours. Tried to kill myself when I was 15, tried cutting my wrists. The wrong way, LOL, glad I didn't succeed. Spent time at the hospital, drugs, counsilling. Did me no good, was back at square one around my 16th birthday I didn't think I could take anymore. It was a bus driver, some random, Calgary transit bus driver, who saved my life. I spent 4 hours on that bus talking with her, crying my eyes out. (It was late at night, and not a heavily trafficked route.)
She helped me. She listened, didn't try to fix anything. Just listened. I will always be grateful to that lady, whoever she was. She kinda helped me see a light at the end of the tunnel.
 
Ah man... this seriously gives me a bad case of sadface seeing so many people around here having been in that point of their life.

Personally, I don't think you can tell a suicidal person to just think of their friends and family and what it would do to them if they were dead. In some cases people like that feel like they are a burden to their friends and family and feel that killing themselves will be the ultimate act of self-sacrifice to benefit their family/friends and not make them feel worse. Suicidal people aren't necessarily being selfish like so many people assume them to be.

Telling them to seek out friends and family doesn't necessarily work either. In my case, I always felt extraordinarily isolated and the friends I felt I had didn't feel like “friends” they were people that just hadn't betrayed or hurt me yet. I don't trust easily and those that I felt I could trust betrayed it later down the line. I still to this day take people's kindness with a grain of salt. I don't trust anyone because I've been so hurt over and over and always view people's kindness as a either a trick to hurt me later or something fake to be civil and sociably acceptable because they don't want to be “mean” so they lie. Telling someone with that screwed up view point to talk with a friend doesn't do much good.

I think however the biggest help to a suicidal person is get them to talk. Most times they've hid this huge giant burden they don't want to talk about to anyone for whatever reason. I was the biggest at this to the point that my friends in high school (when my depression was the most severe) never had any clue I was a suicidal wreck. When asked they'd probably say I'm happy-go-lucky without a care in the world, the life of the party, the person at the center of the group of friends. It's not always the sad person in the corner that wants to kill themselves.

Just because you've felt depression or sadness in life doesn't mean you know what suicidal depression feels like either. I've felt all sorts of different levels of depression. Morning isn't depression. Feeling sad for a loss of a loved one is not necessarily depression. It's just being sad. Depression is something that clings on to you for a longer time span and literally sucks every happiness you could ever feel and leaves you a hollowed out shell in extreme pain or felling absolutely nothing. Medications that induce depression are also another variety. There is a weird “distance” to the feeling, it's not quite the same as you can usually logic your way out of this type because there's nothing really actively making you depressed or sad. There's also that weird depression that sucks the life out of you so much that it removes you even of the motivation to kill yourself, which is kinda amusing in a way.

I don't think telling people in a suicidal state that it's stupid or that it's cowardly is going to help the situation any. A tough-love approach isn't going to get you anywhere here. These people need a shoulder to cry on and someone to listen. They don't need a swift kick or someone to belittle their pain as just “stupid”. They are at the wits end and feel very isolated. They need someone to reach out to them not just be another foolish person disregarding everything.

To them who cares what you think with such condemning conclusions? You just become another cruel person in the world that doesn't know any better. And just because YOU were able to get through something harsh in life doesn't mean they were able to so easily. Everyone has different tolerances. I'm tough as nails because of so much abuse I've gone through my entire life but that doesn't mean I'm going to be an ass about it and be like “Oh just your wife left you, that's all? Let me tell you how terrible my life is, you pussy.” It doesn't work. Everyone is different. Be sympathetic and open up. These people are used to closed off people. You want to help, then open up and stop condemning and calling people dumb. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen people just yelling and being angry with suicidal people instead of being kind and understanding.

I hope that doesn't across as accusing. I'm just saying because I've seen it a lot and I don't think people get it.
 

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