28 Reasons to not commit suicide

[zl]

This is a list of twenty-eight reasons why you should not commit suicide.  I don't think these are the best twenty-eight reasons, but I didn't want to spend so much time on this list that I'd miss my chance to show you it.  Thank you for taking the time to read them.

   1.  You don't know what it means to be dead.  You've heard a lot of theories and ideas, but they all came from living people who also don't know what it means to be dead.  You can guess, but you'll never know what you're stepping into.

   2.  You'll end up dead anyway.  You won't miss out on your chance to be dead by choosing to stay alive.  Waiting around to die is the most socially acceptable method of suicide, and it always works.

   3.  Actually choosing to go on living can be a bit of a rush.  When it's a firm decision - "I choose to live!" - it can give a sense of purpose or meaning to life, just from the idea that you chose it.  It seems like you're in control.  The feeling fades, but it's nice for a bit.

   4.  You'll put your friends and family through grief.  Even aquaintances will get a sinking feeling.  Dying is usually sad, but suicide really spreads a lot of misery.  There's not much you can do to nullify that...your actions will speak louder than your words.

   5.  There might be an important purpose to your life that you don't know yet.  It may seem like a long shot, but who knows?  Something could turn up.

   6.  There isn't a great way to do it.  Unless you've suppressed your self-preservation instincts quite well, you're likely going to cause yourself grief, pain, hassle...and there's the chance that your method will fail, causing all sorts of complications.  If your life is going badly, why add more bad stuff to it?

   7.  There's a lot of world out there.  However much you've seen, you haven't seen it all.

   8.  You can start over.  Abandon your likes and dislikes and friends and memories, and begin a second life.  Hitchhike away, get dropped off in a strange town, figure things out.

   9.  You can join just about any religion and find a different, interesting set of reasons to stay alive.  The reasons seem to be pretty threatening though.

   10.  Your choice will be misinterpreted.  If you're trying to get a message to somebody, you'll likely be better off sticking around to make sure they get it.

   11.  Flowers, cookies, a joke, being warmed by a fire, ice cream, stretching, leaves rustling, sunsets and sunrises, scratching a good itch, finding ten dollars, sand running through your fingers, a scented candle, a piece of velvet, a familiar story told again new.  Ordinary things.

   12.  It's illegal.  Sort of a funny reason to choose.

   13.  You might push some borderline person to commit suicide too.  Not really your fault, but it's could be pretty sad regardless.

   14.  If you happen to consider life to be meaningless, then it's an equally meaningless decision to commit suicide.  Why should you die? Why should you do anything?  There's no real answer.

   15.  What if there really is a Hell?  Odds seem against it to me but dang.  Guaranteed eternal hellfire seems worse than any sort of life.

   16.  If you're so close to the decision, you are in a powerful spot.  If you have nothing to live for, you have a lot more options in how to live your life.  Take risks. Gamble away everything.  Shout in the streets, go to prison, be a corporate tool, break rules, kick over trashcans.  Who cares?

   17.  Music.

   18.  Animals keep at it.  Watch them, learn a different way of dealing with life.

   19.  Big things are underfoot.  The future is coming faster than ever - the world could look completely different in just a bit.  Aren't you curious?

   20.  It's cowardly, cruel, selfish, pitiful, infantile, if those things mean anything to you.  I don't know if any of those accusations are true, but a few of them will almost certainly be thrown at you.

   21.  You're setting yourself up for some bitter ironic twist - "Oh, if he/she had only been alive one more [year, week, day, hour]!"

   22.  You can't go back.  Being alive, on the other hand, is a constant opportunity to change your mind.

   23.  Plant a seed, water it, watch it grow.  If it doesn't die, you might get a nice metaphor out of it.  If it does die...well, at least this reason kept you around long enough to kill a plant.

   24.  It seems to me that most people who consider suicide change their minds before going through with it.  Maybe you can trust that they're on to something.

   25.  What if someone, right now, loves you dearly, and is too shy to say it?  Even a glimpse of you sends them into a serene ecstasy.  If you commit suicide, it would break this person's heart - they'd never recover.  Who knows?

   26.  You're a speck of dust on a spinning dot of a planet in a remote solar system in one of millions of galaxies in an expanding universe.  Deciding whether to live or die is as silly and unimportant a choice as deciding whether to wear white or gray socks.  So go on living, just for the heck of it.

   27.  I don't want you to die.  Do me a favor.

   28.  This could be it.  One life in one universe in one time.  This is the single true history of everything - everything you do is part of that complete picture.  One chance to live, one time to die, one set of experiences and worries and joys.  The things you say and do are forever locked in this story of time and space.  This is the only chance you'll have to contribute to the story of the universe - to not only observe it, but sit down and write some of it yourself.  It's a unique opportunity, to take part in the history of everything.  Write your best.

Edit: I wrote this five years ago, worried about a friend.  I'm still around, so is my friend, I'm grateful for that.

Looking back on this post, I worry about the attention it's still getting and whether it's doing harm or good.  If you've arrived at this post looking for reassurance and feel disappointed, I hope you'll look for a different perspective.  You might try reddit's suicide watch forum.

I hope you find what you need, here or elsewhere.

[PirateClock]

29. Everyone will think you where a pussy.

[yinyangclock]

This put a big smile on my face and now i actually feel better about the world, thanks for sharing.

[Loki Clock]

29. Everyone will think you where a pussy.

Pussy? Where?

[AlbinoClock]

30. It's impossible.

[SpongeClock SquarePants]

31. You're to scared to take it all the way trough you little attention whore shitbag. That's right i said it: YOU'RE TOO SCARED.

[Fire Extinguisher Clock]

Ads in Moscow that are somehow supposed to make ones life better, say different things like, "I fell in love, 100 reasons for optimisms" and another one, a girl secluded from everyone with her headphones "Im understood, 100 reasons for optimisms."
So horrible ads from a communist country outdo your reasons.
(On another note, this should help my friend, thanks.)

[SpongeClock SquarePants]

Ads in Moscow that are somehow supposed to make ones life better, say different things like, "I fell in love, 100 reasons for optimisms" and another one, a girl secluded from everyone with her headphones "Im understood, 100 reasons for optimisms."
So horrible ads from a communist country outdo your reasons.
(On another note, this should help my friend, thanks.)

hahaha you have gay emo suicidal friends. Lousy friend if you ask me, he wants to kil himself and not be your friend.

[buttplug]

I was expecting something at the end like "I love you mom and dad. I'm sorry..." implying suicide. Perhaps this is because you have been writing darker things lately.

[FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK]

1.  You don't know what it means to be dead.  You've heard a lot of theories and ideas, but they all came from living people who also don't know what it means to be dead.  You can guess, but you'll never know what you're stepping into.

4.  You'll put your friends and family through grief.  Even aquaintances will get a sinking feeling.  Dying is usually sad, but suicide really spreads a lot of misery.  There's not much you can do to nullify that...your actions will speak louder than your words.

7.  There's a lot of world out there.  However much you've seen, you haven't seen it all.

10.  Your choice will be misinterpreted.  If you're trying to get a message to somebody, you'll likely be better off sticking around to make sure they get it.

13.  You might push some borderline person to commit suicide too.  Not really your fault, but it's could be pretty sad regardless.

17.  Music.

21.  You're setting yourself up for some bitter ironic twist - "Oh, if he/she had only been alive one more [year, week, day, hour]!"

22.  You can't go back.  Being alive, on the other hand, is a constant opportunity to change your mind.

25.  What if someone, right now, loves you dearly, and is too shy to say it?  Even a glimpse of you sends them into a serene ecstasy.  If you commit suicide, it would break this person's heart - they'd never recover.  Who knows?

These would be my big reasons. It's funny, I consider my purpose in living more for other people than myself. I'm sort of irrelevant in my mind.

[AnkhClock]

33. Can't be arsed to.

[Loki Clock]

32. What if solipsism is right? You'd be murdering everyone!

Just thinking about it gets me hard. What does that say about you?

[Silly Putty Clock]

The only reason I didn't kill myself is that I felt so shitty about myself that I figured killing me wouldn't be worth the effort.

EDIT: Also, I'd prefer fighting everyone in the world over killing them. Universal destruction is so much more satisfying when you're immersed in the action than when you're just doing one thing that will trigger said destruction, especially when that one thing is killing yourself, which means you wouldn't be around to see it happen. Yeah, I'd fight the world. Not kill it.

[miracle fruit]

Lousy friend if you ask me, he wants to kil himself and not be your friend.

hahaha

It's funny, I consider my purpose in living more for other people than myself. I'm sort of irrelevant in my mind.

thats just your mind lying to your face

[LimewireClock]

34. Why commit suicide when you can get some shitty emo child to do it for you?

[PirateClock]

If you are going to kill yourself you should at least be a organ donor. Just call 911, tell them you are going to do it, hang up, shoot yourself trough the brain, paramedic arrive, they harvest your organs, profit. At least that way you have done something to contribute to society in your worthless life.  


I should print this on a flyer.

[Poltergeist]

You cannot see death as the better alternative to life if you have not yet experienced death and compared the two. Ergo, you cannot justify saying you would be better off dead.

[MonsterMunch]

35. You die when I tell you to die!

[DiscoBallClock]

36. If you like it you can't do it again

[PirateClock]

37. what if they invent sex robots and hover boots tomorrow, how much would it suck to be dead then.