Posts by Jack Cottrell

  • Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    Will refrain from going there, save explaining that I'm judging the action, not the person, motive, or outcome.

    Since Feb 2014 • 5 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    One reason for the judgement is that some suicides are self obsessed and even selfish acts. Sometimes the things left behind cause a great deal of harm to those living. In those cases, yeah there is some judgypants going on.

    I think that it's difficult to realise that many people who commit suicide are self-obsessed because one part of depression is extreme self-absorption. It's a little like narcissism in that you can't think of anyone but yourself only instead of thinking you are brilliant you think everything about you is hideous. It takes up a lot of mental energy, hating yourself that much.

    *TW: explicit discussion of suicide*
    The only suicides I consider selfish are the ones which basically make someone else kill you. Train jumpers, death-by-cop.

    Since Feb 2014 • 5 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to thegirlstefan,

    Gah. There's such a nugget of a good idea and of truth in there "It is impossible to remain in the limerence of youth and yet we seem to demand it from our female celebrities" But it just comes out as more of the same thing women always hear "You won't be fulfilled unless you have BABIES!"

    Since Feb 2014 • 5 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Kracklite,

    Oh, I definitely agree with that, and I love your analogy. In my experience, and I've seen some data that suggests the same*, the decision and the action are paired very closely. You're exhausted fighting the skew and then something comes and knocks you down and you decide you just can't get up.

    And I know what you mean about triggering. it's been very hard working in media and living with depression this week.

    *can give citations, but won't right now because Kracklite probably doesn't need to be reading more suicide-discussion. Though they should feel free to yell at me if they find this patronising.

    Since Feb 2014 • 5 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Poor Choices,

    Apologies for the blatant self-promotion, but having read through the comments and noting a fair few people say they don't know much about depression, just thought I'd post this piece I wrote about living with depression and being suicidal. Obviously Charlotte Dawson's death prompted me to write it, but I tried not to comment on her specifically because I didn't know her. I only know the kind of pain she was living in.

    Since Feb 2014 • 5 posts Report Reply