Suicide

[SPECULATION] [NOT COMPREHENSIVE]
What brings about suicide? Specifically, suicide without a mental break.

-- Using my standard behavior-engine model of Desire, Drive, and Key.


The Desire is often relief; avoidance of future suffering, escape from present suffering, and closure to past suffering. However, it can also be spiteful and vengeful.

The Drive isn't inherently self-destruction. That may be the outcome, but it isn't the drive itself. Most of what drives suicide is desperation. Especially in the more dramatic cases. Also, most of the time the drive is derived from loneliness or exclusion, or a perceived disconnect between the individual and peers / society / "the world". Often there is a triggering event, though it isn't usually the primary reason for suicidal ideation. Often time's it's just the straw that broke the camels back, or a an event that resulted in a shift of perspective or emotional stability - but in the case of non-mental-break suicides, the trigger of the drive is rarely also the "cause".

The Key is something most people overlook. A positive. Whether this is closure, the relief of being a burden, feeling like the world or other people would be better off, etc. Any positive benefit to the outcome of suicide.


Now for the bit that no one likes to think about or acknowledge. The reasons for a seemingly tragic suicide may not be invalid. Often times, depression and suicide is viewed as an error, where perception is skewed. However, this isn't always the case. We live in a complicated reality that rejects such simplicity and generality. There are times when a person feels like their death would be a positive thing, and they are right. Or they feel like they need to escape inevitable suffering, which is inevitable and real to them. Sometimes they feel excluded and alone, when they are. Or they feel outcast, excluded, "other", or disconnected from their peers or society, because that is the case.

No one like's to think that maybe the suicide "victim" made the right choice for themselves. However sometimes that is the case, and depending on the mental and emotional abilities of the individual; only they are the ones that are qualified to make that determination.