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This is how the suicide thinks about death

This is how the suicide thinks about death

March 3, 2024

Something is certain: a priori, virtually no person wants to die. The vast majority of people see the death process as the most terrible thing that can happen to an individual. We, humans, in our constant desire to possess total "omnipotence" (in addition to marked ideals of transcendence), long for permanence in life.

For the suicide, on the other hand, death acquires a special meaning . Their way of thinking about death is very different from that of the vast majority, and that influences their behavior and attitudes.

  • Related article: "Suicidal thoughts: causes, symptoms and therapy"

Death, according to suicides

There are two ways in which suicide can reach conceptualize death. They are the following.


An emergency exit

Here, the suicide understands death as the liberation from the bonds and the difficulties of life, a change to pass from what lived in another existential plane imagined and characterized by the absence of suffering .

Suicide can be planned and carried out as a way to get rid of those problems that suffocate that person. "I can not anymore", "I'm sick of this suffering", etc. they are just some of the affirmations that the person in crisis formulates in the deepest moments of his ideation, although he does not have to express them openly. The possibility of committing the act is seen as an emergency exit since their personal, family or social situation becomes practically unbearable.


For the individual is not so important what you will find after having died, as the fact of getting away from something: pain, grief, suffering of relatives and loved ones, etc. What is really important is to leave your state once and for all, to cross that "blind alley" in the is. The main objective of committing suicide act is to overcome this anxiety quickly.

Suicide seen positive

For others, suicide may have a different objective than the previous one: make a change, either in oneself or in the environment in which the suicide is located. From this another view what matters is not free from this situation of distress but rather focuses on what the person wants to achieve : tranquility, peace, happiness ...

In this case, the concept becomes a kind of portal in which the subject enters to obtain a more harmonious and pleasant experience of life (on a transcendental plane). For the above, although it seems illogical and confusing, it is possible to affirm that for these people The main objective of committing suicide is to live fully, although it sounds paradoxical .


From the aforementioned vision, suicide would be transformed as a gateway to a new life where tranquility and emotional calm are the protagonists, as well as to season the new stage of life and move to another in which there will be neither the anguish or the suffering that may occur at some point in the present life. It would be something like returning to that security of the maternal womb.

Thus, the act of suicide can be explained by a channeling towards rejection by life, or by a quick approach towards one's own death.

  • You may be interested: "The relationship between depression and suicide from Psychology"

Suicidal reasoning: a curious contradiction

In the existing pattern of suicide, life and death are the protagonists of the drama. Between these two poles, the decision to end one's life is gestated; in the suicidal dialectic, the fear of living and suffering, on the one hand, and the fear of dying for the other, would be the two extremes of existing.

The goal, then, is to die, but also to start living in another way . Several authors affirm that suicidal behavior is, in the first place, an act of life and not of death. He who wishes to commit suicide longs to free himself from his problems, change the existing circumstances or return to a state of security, yet at the bottom of his being lies a fervent desire to live.

A form of hope?

Other students of the phenomenon consider that suicide means hope, hope to continue living in peace and tranquility . With the above, suicide becomes the way to eliminate the existing hopelessness, suffocating depression and permanent guilt. It is also a way to disappear, but remaining in the consciousness of family and friends as a painful memory and difficult to overcome.

At the extreme of those who observe life, is the great spectrum of those who manifest a first symptom of general malaise identified as "denial of life" and disqualification of himself, which produces a deep desire not to live , not exist anymore.

It is from this moment when there is a sudden turn towards death : from the constant desire to die to the desire to commit suicide, and from this to suicide. As we approach the end of death, the experience of suicidal thoughts becomes firmer and the risk of self-destruction is higher.


Anthony Bourdain | Reflections On Suicide And Death (March 2024).


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