I may be causing even more triggers here......so read with care......

I guess I have a strange way of thinking about suicide. Why should it be only made legal for sufferers of manic depression....how about people with cancer or a terminal illness?.....how about people with depression or any other mental illness that can bring a person to that point of thinking (not just manic depression).

Then I have some questions about different aspects of suicide. What about passive suicide such as:
1) If I am dealing with anorexia, I want to loose weight because I feel that I am fat no matter how thin I get. I can end up dying from that illness. When I was feeling suicidal & dealing with massive weight loss, I realized that if I died from anorexia, my family wouldn't have to deal with the stigma of suicide....it would have been the anorexia that killed me.

2) Then you can look at a person with an illness (something obvious such as cancer) & chooses to ignore it, or doesn't realize they have it, or even ignores it out of ignorance (I know that was my Mothers case) By ignoring it until it is too late, they can end up dying. Is that considered suicide if they ignore it if they want to die?

Of course, the real question about the law comes down to the basics. How can they enforce the law.....if a person successfully commits suicide, they are dead.....they can't be put in jail.....they can't be fined......what exactly does the law do to a person who commits suicide? Or is the law right now only for those who try to commit suicide but aren't successfull?

I know in California, it is illegal to commit suicide. The only thing they do here if they catch you before you die, is to put you into the hospital on a 72 hour hold. If you are talking about suicide, Dr's can have you put on a 72 hour hold & take you to a psych hospital. I also know that the law here states that if your are harmfull to yourself or others, you can be put on a 5150 (72 hour hold) & taken to a treatment place. That was how the sheriffs handled the guy who followed me home for over 40 miles late at night. Luckily we didn't go home & went to a place where we could get law enforcement help.

I am curious about what the UK law does now for people who successfully commit suicide? How can they inforce a law on someone who isn't alive? I think that the law is only useful for people who unsuccessfully attempt the suicide. What they do in the UK now with people who just attempt suicide?

Suicide is much more complicated that limiting it to be ok for manic depression & not for anything else.

Personally I think that EVERY person who attempts suicide for whatever reason & whether they are caught or not......NEEDS PROFESSIONAL HELP!!!! I know because I was dealing with anxiety & just plain old depression & very suicidal for years. I was almost successful several times (landing in ICU in a coma & on a breathing machine because I couldn't breath on my own). I needed help even though I wasn't open to it at the time. I was determined that suicide was my only answer.

Like you, I am so thankful that I wasn't successful. I have still gone through some horrible things in my life after I got through the suicidal feelings. My life still isn't what I would call great. However the love I am experiencing with my eskies & my horses, especially my filly that my mare had just 2 years ago, is something that I never could have dreamed of in my greatest dreams.

I no longer have my career that used to be my complete identity, but the love I have with my eskies & horses is more wonderful than anything I could have ever thought could have happened in my life. From them, I have learned what real love is.

I am now able to look at things much more positively than I did before. I am hoping that I will be able to take the horrible trauma I went through when my mother was dying of cancer & I caught the home care RN in the fraud & identity theft & she called the police to accuse me of abusing of my Mother & make something good out of it. I can't stop the flashbacks or nightmares.....or even the feelings of depersonalization that continue to haunt me but hopefully I will be able to take all the information I have & show the hospital the mistakes they made & hopefully get the information out to the public so they can be more aware that things like that can actually happen.

If I had been successful with any one of my suicide attempts, I wouldn't have been there for my Mother (no matter how much anger I still have toward her). I also wouldn't be able to enjoy the farm I am planning on buying with the sale of my Mothers home. I will be able to have all my horses & dogs around me without having to continue boarding my horses. I will be able to settle down & focus on training my filly & continue my dressage training & showing. I have learned how to truely enjoy my life & realize that I am me & not just what my career was.

Having the ability to sit back & enjoy my life that is around me is something I couldn't do if I had been successful with any of my suicides, but the suicide attempts are what taught me to be able to enjoy the life that I have & not be trapped in the superficial life I had. I have found in my life there is always the good & bad in everything.

Sorry for my long winded discussion on the topic but it is rather complicated,
Debbie