Welcome to Murica, where you have the FREEDOM to receive subpar care when you need help the most.
I'm a fellow citizen of the bald eagle who also has dealt with psychological issues and the United States's terrible health and mental care system. I read through your posts and saw you're thinking of ending it. I don't know your situation, but I've been somewhere similar. I have an incurable, chronic, progressive health condition that causes some disability and just hurts like a motherfucker. Not looking for sympathy, just explaining.
I was dead set on ending it because I couldn't imagine going through life always in pain, being a burden to my spouse, family, and friends, and just being a big overall sad sack like I was. Obviously I didn't. I got help and worked through my giant pile of issues and I'm glad I did. I think about how I was then and my life now with my wife and friends and my stupid, silly cats and I always start crying because I love all of them and everything so much and I was so close to giving all of this away.
I agree with you 100% - everyone should have bodily autonomy, including the right to end your life as you see fit. Just give it a lot of thought. It's fucking morbid, but what kept me going for the first few weeks is that I could always kill myself later. I didn't need to make a decision then, I could always make a decision later if trying to make things better was as impossible as it seemed. It was a ton of work and it really sucked sometimes but it got better. Even when things regressed hard, I kept looking for ways to keep improving because at the heart of it, I really didn't want to die, I just couldn't imagine living, so I worked on making a life that I could believe in.
No matter what, don't look at this as a failing. People like us can have a certain strength and appreciation for life that others who haven't had to deal with this don't understand. If you need to talk with someone who at least might get it, I'm here.
You and many others probably know this already but for those that don't: in countries like the United States, private prisons actually lobby to make it more likely that previous offenders will return to jail. They seek stricter sentencing so offenders are incarcerated longer and to remove funding for nonprofits and programs that provide rehabilitation.
Just let that sink in. There are human beings that are doing their best to make sure people fail and are punished without rehabilitation, hoping they become trapped in the prison system, all so shareholders can make a buck. How fucked up is that?
Totally understandable, there's always a risk that a quick, snappy comment conveys the wrong meaning. My wording definitely could have been better, but I'm leaving it for posterity so future generations might learn to do better.
I agree with your point, but want to highlight that at no point did I suggest people can't be upset about multiple things. No offense intended toward you personally (or anyone really), but your response now seems to be the standard reaction to shut down anyone pointing out the disparity in media/public reaction between things like people dying or being repressed and material goods being vandalized or destroyed. It's getting better, but the theme of reporting tended to be that property damage is a tragic loss of irreplaceable treasure, while genocide was more akin to "some people went to sleep and didn't wake up again, maybe they should have complied".
Of course people can be upset by multiple things. When the magnitude of upset over precious but ultimately replaceable things being destroyed is greater than that for irreplaceable people being destroyed, then we have a problem.
At least that's my take and I'm anything but infallible.
There's a great book called Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving. It's mostly a primer on how CPTSD works but does have content on what to do about it. Just putting a name to things is huge.
I started with the audiobook, primarily listening to it on my drive home. I knew it had nailed it for me when I realized I had spent an entire week's worth of commutes home rage crying.
Oh no, a painting! So much more important and relatable than children dying. That happens all the time.
/s
Edit: I'm agreeing with the above point, folks. Lives are more important than paintings. We need a lot more outrage about people dying and less about property damage.
Or complex PTSD. That's what I have and the two have a TON of behavioral overlap. My therapist and I spent a good amount of time determining if I was autistic or not.
When you're a cop, you can be both persecuted and persecutor. If only we could harness the power of their flip flopping to generate electricity, the police would finally do more good than harm.
The United States Republican Party is always there to remind me that at least 1/3 of humans are still no better than scared, shit flinging apes. Maybe this is our species's next genetic bottleneck.
I'm also disabled. We tend to refer to this as the "disability tax". Anything that could potentially be billed to insurance or for which there are no other options is incredibly expensive. If we can't afford it or don't have insurance, we're always welcome to go die under a bridge somewhere. Gotta pay for the owner's yacht.
It's like having a super power. I remember being stuck in the Santa Fe airport in the late afternoon waiting for my massively delayed flight to arrive. After three hours or so, it's past dinner time and people start becoming unglued. One family even has pizza delivered and manages to convince airport security to run it through the security gauntlet for them. I had been fasting for awhile so I was fine, where a year prior I would have been scrambling for food with the rest of them.
Same as long as this isn't the only thing they do. I work with a guy that loves to talk about his passions and it's awesome for like thirty minutes. Then it's alright for another 15-20. After that it starts to drag and I begin to feel the weight of my mounting unfinished tasks.
I think the brave explorers are still here, they're now just vastly outnumbered. The early Internet was full of those explorer types because they in particular tended to have enough interest to overcome the hurdles of getting on the Internet: namely computers being expensive and somewhat difficult to use. The early Internet was more accessible to intelligent, innovative users, and it reflected its user base. Many got online to explore and continued to explore and innovate once there.
Now millions have a user-friendly computer in their pocket, so practically anyone, even flat earthers, is capable and intelligent enough to use the Internet. Most are attracted not by exploration but by access to specific services that have been advertised to them, especially social media. The Internet continues to reflect its user base, but the user base's composition has... changed. Let's just call it changed.
Welcome to Murica, where you have the FREEDOM to receive subpar care when you need help the most.
I'm a fellow citizen of the bald eagle who also has dealt with psychological issues and the United States's terrible health and mental care system. I read through your posts and saw you're thinking of ending it. I don't know your situation, but I've been somewhere similar. I have an incurable, chronic, progressive health condition that causes some disability and just hurts like a motherfucker. Not looking for sympathy, just explaining.
I was dead set on ending it because I couldn't imagine going through life always in pain, being a burden to my spouse, family, and friends, and just being a big overall sad sack like I was. Obviously I didn't. I got help and worked through my giant pile of issues and I'm glad I did. I think about how I was then and my life now with my wife and friends and my stupid, silly cats and I always start crying because I love all of them and everything so much and I was so close to giving all of this away.
I agree with you 100% - everyone should have bodily autonomy, including the right to end your life as you see fit. Just give it a lot of thought. It's fucking morbid, but what kept me going for the first few weeks is that I could always kill myself later. I didn't need to make a decision then, I could always make a decision later if trying to make things better was as impossible as it seemed. It was a ton of work and it really sucked sometimes but it got better. Even when things regressed hard, I kept looking for ways to keep improving because at the heart of it, I really didn't want to die, I just couldn't imagine living, so I worked on making a life that I could believe in.
No matter what, don't look at this as a failing. People like us can have a certain strength and appreciation for life that others who haven't had to deal with this don't understand. If you need to talk with someone who at least might get it, I'm here.