Is Suicide Ever a Rational Choice?

By: Loren A. Olson, MD

Loneliness & despair that drive thoughts of suicide may feel like they will last forever. But if one holds on & makes some changes, the pain can subside.

Photo source: Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

My prior post on this site, “Why Older Gay Men Are Attempting Suicide at a Higher Rate,” received a lot of attention. Because of that, Dr. Patricia Salber, the editor of the site, asked that I do a follow-up. I would like to broaden the focus of this essay beyond the LGBTQ community.

Suicide facts

Here are some basic facts about suicide that I included in that first essay:

Loneliness and hopelessness

I hear from a lot of (mostly) men who are despairing. Two common themes emerge:

They frequently occur together, and unfortunately, they also feed on each other. Here are two rather typical comments left on my earlier essay [edited for brevity]:

I feel a sense of having completed the challenges of life and am grateful for those experiences. I see being able to choose to end my life as a reward for having made it this far. Am I just afraid of facing one more new challenge, namely, learning how to face the final stages of my life alone? … I can’t see what I would gain by learning how to remain independent until…