World Suicide Prevention Day

Suicide is a worldwide problem and affects individuals of all cultures, nations, religions, genders, and classes. The countries with the highest suicide rates are highly diverse. The top five include the south Indian nation of Sri Lanka (35.3 per 100k), South Korea (28.3), and Lithuania (32.7). Mongolia and Guyana complete the top five.

It would be interesting to look up suicide rates in terms of age and socio-economic status.

Emil Durkheim at the beginning of the last century published a ground-breaking study on suicide in which he coined the term anomie, which literally means normlessness, a condition in which society does not provide moral guidance to individuals. Is our modern civilization characterized by anomie? Could this be one of the causes of suicie?

A number of philosophers and scientists in ancient and recent times committed suicide.

The most famous case was Seneca, but that doesn’t really count because Nero ordered Seneca to commit suicide, which means that Seneca’s suicie was actually murder.

Epictetus called suicide the “öpen door,” by which he meant that there was always a way out if life became unendurable.

Notwithstanding that remark, the Stoics were not advocates of suicide.

.The Stoic position can be summarized in Churchill’s line that “One should never abandon life. There is a way out of everything but death.”

Admiral James Stockdale, an adherent of Stoicism, considered suicide while in a North Vietnmese prison camp.

However, he considered suicide not because he was depressed but because he was heroically declining to aid the captors and torturers who wished to make him betray his country.

The same is true for Cato, who fought to the very end to save the Roman Republic.

Seneca, Cato, Churchill, and Stockdale were fighters. They never gave up, and we shouldn’t either. Our life is worth fighting for. No matter who you are or what you are going through, you have options other than suicide. Lots of them.

Remember that the Stoice teach that a lot of thi ngs are in our control, our thoughts, our choices, and our ability to turn a painful experience into something that will make the world a better place.

We should not be ashamed to seek help, which is out there.

Call the national Suicide Prevention Hotline 1 (800) 273-9255, which is available 24/7 in English and Spanish.

Here’s a list of international resources