Why Suicide is Dumb

Don't worry, you'll get there eventually.

There is a story in the news today about a young artist who hanged herself from her fire escape, which meant her body could seen by passers-by on the street below. This is so sad. She was only 21, and obviously an extrovert! If she was depressed, she had options: She lived in Brooklyn and so could have gotten herself a toasted bialy with a shmear and a great cup of coffee in like two minutes and thought things through. Now she's dead and her name is on the Internet, where it will remain for about five minutes. Then that's it, she's gone.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  collects data about mortality in the U.S., including deaths by suicide. In 2013, 41,149 suicides were reported, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death for Americans. In that year, someone in the country died by suicide every 12.8 minutes."

Except in cases of chronic pain or terminal illness, choosing to end your life is dumb. After all, each of us is guaranteed to have the death experience firsthand, so why not try something different until then? It's like this: Suppose you are planning to open a new Italian restaurant. Would you choose to eat pizza and pasta every night during the months leading up to it? Of course not, since you know you will be stuffing your face with all that jazz soon enough. Instead you might opt for Chinese, or maybe do a lot of cooking at home, or try Indian or Greek food for some variety -- anything but Italian.

Life and Death are like that. Death will happen soon enough, so it makes sense to stick around and try a lot of Life until it's over. The trick is developing a tough skin and finding a go-to painkiller for when things get dicey. I recommend meditation and/or physical exercise, a hot shower and a nice cup of tea, and a good book you've read several times already. Prescription drugs can help in more extreme cases. Most important is to keep in mind the fact that bad moods pass but suicide is forever.