[Pyramid*]

All manner of things are the catalyst to a person taking their own life.

From someone who was left having to deal with the aftermath: I have a double edged view on this. Is it selfish? Yes - for those that are left but I do not for one second imagine that the person committing the act can see further than trying to 'stop the pain/suffering/ending the problem' - so intense it is for them. They feel there is no other way out and aren't able to rationalise past that because they are emotionally not in the right place. From the point of those left behind - I think it is selfish - albeit not being done out of selfishness deliberately: that's the kicker, it's not a deliberate attempt at being selfish: but of not being able to see any other way out, and the mistaken belief that the family is better of without them - they believe THEY are the cause of the problem.

Many of us with a few decades under our belts, have gone through life being 'pushed to the limit / depressed / stressed /worried sick' to the point that we think we cannot take any more: not to the point of being suicidal: but to the point that we think we will 'crack' if having to put up with more 'pressure' - imagine that on a very grand scale - and that's what I imagine the person planning to take their own life has reached. They simply 'crack'.

The flip side is that I think it takes an unparalled amount of courage to go about ending your life to ensure that there are no mistakes and that it will result in death - I cannot even begin to imagine the fear inside as the person makes those final steps and stages - to not stop. Particularly when it is a suicide that is not 'quick' but one that takes time to effect - when there would have been enough time to put a halt to it. To override that fear and fight that natural inbuilt ability for the body to survive - I imagine - must be one of the most hellish feeling to have to ride out whilst waiting for death to come.