Ask HN: What are your thoughts on suicide?

I think some people feel overwhelmed and trapped and suicide often seems like the only option. I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s a waste of opportunity, but I think it&#x27;s very sad that some people feel so stuck.<p>When Aaron died, I felt sad that I&#x27;d never see him again and that he wouldn&#x27;t be around to fight things anymore, but I don&#x27;t feel like it makes someone a bad person, I feel like maybe we should all do a better job of trying to understand where people are coming from and accept that there&#x27;s always more going on that people share.

I&#x27;m not sure what all the fuss is about re: a man&#x27;s right to choose death.<p>At the risk of sounding a bit nihilistic, we are just organisms on a spinning rock in space and (I guess) our purpose is to propagate our DNA? What if your DNA is shit, though? I&#x27;ve got an anxiety issue I wouldn&#x27;t wish on my worst enemy. Half of my days on this earth are spent in what can best be described as severe jet-lag due to anxiety-related sleep issues.<p>Because of this, I feel very little joy, have difficulty with a 9-5 job and my relationships suffer, big-time. Girls like me well enough, but I&#x27;ve chosen to stay single and not reproduce because I don&#x27;t think anyone should have to go through what I&#x27;ve gone through. I fear passing my shit onto someone else.<p>On top of all that, the world we live in is just monstrously horrible. Most of the world&#x27;s resources are held by a very, very small minority of the uber-rich and the rest of us are in pseudo-slavery to them. If a part of the world doesn&#x27;t matter to this group, fuck it, let them die of ebola or whatever.<p>So getting back to the point, if I want to make a rational decision to kill myself, similar to my rational decision not to reproduce, why shouldn&#x27;t I be able to do that? If my life doesn&#x27;t bring me any joy and my presence is a net-negative to humanity, why <i>wouldn&#x27;t</i> I do it?<p>I should note that I absolutely will not kill myself because I have family that would be devastated&#x2F;scarred, including some young nephews and a niece. I won&#x27;t do that to them. I&#x27;ve chosen to live it out and do whatever I can to minimize the pain.

I think everyone has the right to suicide, and virtually nobody should do it. Exceptions being hopeless, painful, imminent death.<p>Don&#x27;t do it, you might miss something.

Thanks for the thoughtful responses.<p>This post wasn&#x27;t in consideration of suicide myself, just interested in the dissonant thoughts on it here. There is probably a visibility bias in who would feel compelled to answer this question in the first place. There was a suicide recently at a Burning Man event in Utah that had spurred a lot of thought as well. The reactions were so widely varied and intensely personal, I found it intriguing.<p>I used to react with scorn towards suicide, as though the person had taken something from anyone that cared for them. I&#x27;ve relented from this attitude though. A few examples of the act (Hunter S Thompson and Socrates, in particular) made me consider it in a different light.