Gazing at the fine line between bravery and suicide

[fly on the wall]

My niece, Danica Dora, is a singer/songwriter. She wrote a song called "Suicide is for the Brave". It always makes me uneasy to listen to it because somehow it's like she's promoting suicide. Don't fool around with suicide, it's dangerous to even talk about, and yet I'm here to talk about it. Talking about suicide is gazing into the abyss, which looks back at you.

Recently a young German co-pilot committed suicide by running a plane full of passengers into a mountain. He's not the only one to do things like that, others have taken people with them when they commit suicide.

But as soon as it was announced what the co-pilot had done, the News Media wanted to know if he had depression, did he take anti-depressants, did he go to a shrink, did he have a history of mental illness. After all, the mentally ill commit suicide more than normal people.

The mentally ill are not the only group of people that commits suicide a lot, gay people and war vets do too. But when the plane hit the mountain no one was suggesting that maybe the co-pilot was gay or that he might be a war veteran. That would politically incorrect. It is politically correct to slander the mentally ill.

I’m bipolar. Some statisticians say that 15% of bipolar people commit suicide. Some statisticians also estimate that 15% of gay people commit suicide. There are laws in my state that prohibit me from buying a gun because of my supposed suicidal tendencies, but the gay people can buy all the guns they want even though they are just as likely to commit suicide. People now say that the mentally ill should not be able to be pilots. Could you imagine the hue and cry if someone said gay people should not be allowed to be pilots?

And what’s even a little unsettling is that most of our commercial pilots are military veterans, another group that is famous for suicide. Truth be told, as dangerous as it is to be in the military, especially during times of war, you’d have to be a little suicidal just to join up. Is there a fine line between being suicidal and being brave?. Land of the free, home of the suicidal? Maybe suicide is for the brave.

Oh, by the way, turned out the co-pilot was crazy so continue discriminating against the mentally ill.

[bert]

you do appear to be making much more coherent posts than you did back in the day, Fly, so whatever meds you are taking now to control your condition do appear to be working.

how are things with you? Decibelle? (i know y'all had a health scare, did she pull thru OK?).

best,
bert

[Michael P]

I don't know if it's as cut and dry as you make it sound, fly. Speaking as a formerly suicidal mentally ill person, I know it's a fact that some mentally ill people do commit suicide. I also know it's a fact that the three groups you mentioned aren't separate from one another; plenty of gay people and veterans suffer from some form of mental illness as a direct result of their experiences with being gay or military service. In each case, there's a certain percentage of that population who do commit suicide.

Now, obviously, the solution isn't to ostracize the mentally ill, or treat them like time bombs. But neither is it to ignore the realities of mental illness so that we don't make people (usually not the mentally ill themselves, but rather those who want to walk on eggshells around them) uncomfortable. I'm not a china doll; I can handle a frank discussion of mental illness and how it can drive people to harm themselves and others. Especially if that frank discussion leads to destigmatization of mental illness and getting these people the treatment they need before it gets that far.

[Crimson Knight]

you do appear to be making much more coherent posts than you did back in the day, Fly, so whatever meds you are taking now to control your condition do appear to be working.

how are things with you? Decibelle? (i know y'all had a health scare, did she pull thru OK?).

best,
bert

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and just ask - does Fly have a condition, then, and that's not a bit of a barb, or insult?

I doubt you would be doing that, but, just in case you're saying they have a condition, and take meds, when they don't, in connection to their post coherency.

[bert]

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and just ask - does Fly have a condition, then, and that's not a bit of a barb, or insult?

I doubt you would be doing that, but, just in case you're saying they have a condition, and take meds, when they don't, in connection to their post coherency.

Fly is being honest in his posts, he's Bi-Polar, and over the many years Ive known him, he's been very open about it and what meds work (and yes, you can tell when he's off of them).

so I was asking him an honest question as to how he's doing, and making a serious comment.

[Crimson Knight]

Fly is being honest in his posts, he's Bi-Polar, and over the many years Ive known him, he's been very open about it and what meds work (and yes, you can tell when he's off of them).

so I was asking him an honest question as to how he's doing, and making a serious comment.

Okay, that's good, that's good.

I hope my post and questions didn't annoy, hurt, or offend.

Sorry about that, just had to make sure, and, as I said, doubted you were insulting them etc.

[tombo]

One of the first post I ever read on CBR was flys about going to a funeral and bying x men comics afterward. It effected me.