Broncos WR Kenny McKinley found dead

In fact, I think a lot of times, in the eyes of the person committing suicide they see themselves taking on a heroic or at least courageous choice, for it is better for the world to be without them than with them. Depression is a terrible thing, it distorts reality, causing the depressed person to perceive the whole world in a skewed manner that feeds the depression. I would never call suicide cowardly, I do however understand that it is nearly always incredibly crippling to those who are left behind.

Police report: McKinley was depressed | ProFootballTalk.com (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/09/21/police-report-mckinley-was-depressed/)

You think?

For those who are contemplating or have attempted in the past I have an over abundance of compassion for. I'll do almost anything neccessary to help the individual in order to keep them from doing it.

However, thats where my compassion stops. I feel everyone is on earth to learn a lesson to improve themselves.... kinda like school. Every year you go to school -the more you learn, to decide your going to commit suicide is like quiting on school or giving up. bailing out. I don't feel compassion for someone who has committed suicide just like I don't feel compassion for someone who decided to quit school after 8th grade. God had a plan and they bailed.

I do have compassion for the families though. No one should have to go through having a family member do that.None of these concepts of which you speak are either understood or available to a suicidal person. A person who is suicidal is sick as much as any patient with cancer or diabetes or AIDS. It is not about "bailing out", and God doesn't enter into the equation. When you reach that point of depression and hopelessness you are prisoner to emotions run amok and in need of help you can not give yourself; it's not about bucking up and rolling with life's punches.

It is about an illness that can be treated with therapy, medicine or a combination of both, and the analogy comparing it to dropping out of school is ridiculous.

In fact, I think a lot of times, in the eyes of the person committing suicide they see themselves taking on a heroic or at least courageous choice, for it is better for the world to be without them than with them.


The last thing someone suffering from depression feels like is .............."heroic".

The last thing someone suffering from depression feels like is .............."heroic".

Not necessarily. A friend of mine lost his dad to suicide. The dad felt he could not give his wife and kids what they want, and saw suicide as the only way he could provide for them through a life insurance policy. He expressed a belief that this was the only way he could make sure they would be ok. The family would rather of had their dad, and an outsider would not have seen it as a "heroic" gesture, but the dad in his depression did.

The thing about severe depression is that it so warps a persons reality that they are no longer thinking in the same terms as a functioning person. Thus what a non depressed person may see as "cowardly" the severely depressed person sees as the only option. At that point the brain can begin building the belief that this is not only an acceptable option it is in fact the best option. Once a depressed person believes it is the best option the brain can take the step to believe that it is a heroic gesture.

I am not saying every suicide has that as a motivation, but I know with a certainty that it can be.

Having known a couple of people who have committed suicide I can say I cannot ever understand what they did. I do not think it is cowardice. For some people they must get to such a dark and desperate place that this is their only option.

Mental Health America: Ranking America's Mental Health: An Analysis of Depression Across the States (http://www.nmha.org/go/state-ranking)
I guess I am going to put off that trip to Alaska..........

from the article:

Age-adjusted suicide rates were also examined since suicide is the most significant negative outcome of depression.

somehow this statement, and the coldness of the pc speak, just upsets me. I know what they are saying and obviously it's not an incorrect statement for a statistical report like that, but still ... ugh.

Woody Paige shares a page of his life and how it relates to this story:

Paige: We must learn from McKinley's death - The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/paige/ci_16149407)