Argh! I've just been called the equivalent of a United States Senator. I think I need to go and get beaten up in a biker bar now.

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My dad passed away from MS a couple years ago. That is a horrific disease. He went from an athletic healthy man to a pile of flesh on a bed. It took 30 years and every year he lost more ground.

I never heard him contemplated ending his life. He knew what was coming and he knew it was always going to get worse.

I have talked to a lot of people who said they would have taken the easy way out. But I can tell you, even though it was very painful and full of suffering, the life he lived was worth it. Being part of that life, suffering, pain and sadness was worth it to me and every one in my family will tell you the same.

It took a lot of courage and humility for a star athlete like him to be reduced to being carried around and tended like a plant. It was hard for us, his kids and his wife to see that happen and have to take care of him. But he never stopped bringing us joy.

What he taught me is something I can't even convey properly. How can I fail to act because it would be uncomfortable or difficult. How can I quit or walk away if I am not getting what I want. Nothing he got was what he wanted, but he never quit or gave up.

I do understand that depression and mental illness changes the way you think. But if suicide seems like a good idea, you have a big problem and need to get that addressed real fast. Life is way to short to be stuck in your own head.

My dad was stuck in his own body and by its limitations. But that never made him quit. He did not go quietly into that good night. He went with honor and dignity.

For Junior Seau, I can understand his despair. One of the symptoms of having repeated concussions is clinical depression. On top of that is the knowledge that everything that makes you who you are is slowly melting away. Not physically, but every experience, every memory, even the ability to think is draining out of your mind leaving nothing behind. That alone would be enough to cause despair without the clinical component. But together, it is pretty overwhelming.

I can understand how bad it would be to loose everything physically and I think I could handle that. But to lose who you are, the memories of your family, the glory you attained in professional sports that you can't even remember now. The teammates that you shared so much with that you can't even recall. Even the ability to understand what you are going through will slip away eventually. Leaving a hollow shell of what used to be a great man.

I think that I would chicken out of that.

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Zero go fuck yourself. I spent 3 years of my high school days depressed because my basketball coach did something to emasculate me. He didn't get fired and the powers that be didnt' do shit to him cause we had a good team. I grew up hating authority, quit sports, and spent the rest of my adolescence depressed - and I did try to kill myself - but ended up yacking up the bottle of pills I took, so instead of dying - I was just really ill instead. So take your opinion and shove up your ass.

I am no fucking coward but I do understand the darkest side of man - and obviously you don't know a fucking thing about this subject.

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I tried it, it wasn't fun, how about you go fuck yourself. You dismiss everything I have gone through in my life, past or present, and rattle of some sob story about you in high school as if I'm going to care after what you've said? You're a pathetic person inside and out if that's how you are. You used something terrible that happened to you as something to throw in my face and diminish anything I've gone through, for that, you're a waste of skin. I had intended on responding to Shawn with personal experiences of my own as to why I have the opinion I do. Then you make this post, no one even has the balls to call you out for how wrong you are and it made me realize ... no one here cares what I went through ... rather you fucks just think my opinion and what I've endured doesn't matter.

Thanks for the understanding and support, appreciate it.

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whoa...deep discussion that went way off base.

i don't think anyone is dismissing anyone's past - i think we just forget that everyone has a story, a life full of highs & lows, we are quick to judge at times & because we are like a family, we are also quick to be hurt.

i think if someone commits suicide, they're in so much pain mentally &/or physically that they just don't see any other way out. i don't find that the act of a coward. but then you look at the people they left behind & the pain they have to endure forever, always wondering if they could have said/done something to make the person NOT kill themself. it's such a hard question with no concrete answer, imo.

???



I understand those saying the act of suicide (or threat of) is not cowardly. I respect that opinion, I just disagree with it. Apparently that makes my opinion nothing, regardless of how many suicides I've had in my life, and the hundreds (not an exaggeration) of suicidal threats. There's only been two times in my life that it was almost self ended.

I don't believe there's a solid answer for what suicide is because there are many reasons for someone to feel there is no way out, no light at the end of the tunnel. For my friend Matt, he wasn't a coward, far from it. He was upset that his parents kicked out his older brother for throwing a party. He decided to play Russian roulette and lost. It's why I don't like guns, even though the gun didn't pull the trigger, he did. It's just an association thing so all you pro gun fucks can lay off. I know people kill people, not guns.

Everyone does have a story. Everyone has a right to share that story, or not to. Everyone has a right to an opinion without being attacked for their opinion.

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Well I'm sorry for what I said, but I was terribly hurt by your position of people contemplating suicide are cowards. It struck a nerve and I lashed. I tend to that from time to time.

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