T.O. Attempts Suicide?

Care to elaborate about the "wow"? Is attempting suicide so unusual in the US?

...suicide attempts among famous people is usually jarring.

Fame alone doesn't make everyone happy; quite the opposite. It can lead to making people very shallow, superficial shells of their former selves.

I don't think his point was it was jarring because why would someone so rich and famous commit suicide, just that it is, in fact, jarring when any well known person tries to take their own life.

I don't find it particualarly suprising since he's exhibited signs of being mentally unstable for years. Still, I feel bad for him and hope he gets the help that he needs.

Yup.


If that's the case then that's sad. Clinical depression, if that's what this is, is rough. \

That seems to contradict

Chucker, yikes man, do you not follow the concept that something can be unsuprising but still jarring?

This isn't PO. There's no need to be snarky.

I don't understand why people have a problem with suicide. I see it as a solution to a problem. If your life isn't working out and you see no way to fix it then why not just end it? It seems crazy to me to continue through life suffering just to conform to society's view that life is good and you can overcome any problem.

When I look at the world around, I honestly don't think it's somewhere I want to be either. Lots of people view suicide as selfish and sometimes quite spiteful because they are being ungrateful to their family or in the case of celebrity to their fans. But people have no obligation to their families or friends.

You don't request to come into life, least of all the circumstances you are born into so why should you feel pressured into living a life you don't enjoy to satisfy people you didn't ask to be subjected to?

A lot of people attribute suicidal tendencies to mental instability too but that's no more apt than saying you're mentally unstable if you reject peanut butter when asked if you want it with toast. It may be the case where you are ok with peanut butter but you've grown tired of it and you just don't want it any more. It can be a choice like any other.

Suffice to say, it's a personal thing and it's not within our capacity to judge a person we don't know.

well, it's shocking... yet somehow not. i think t.o. has been at odds with his true self and his public image for a very long time, and one has constantly been trying to snuff out the other. i think he's a fantastic wide receiver, who's had apparent personality problems ever since he blew up on the 49ers sideline years ago.i hope he gets better and can just concentrate on living life and his family can work through this okay.

what i find particularly galling, though, is his publicist trying to spin this off as just a medication reaction between two incompatible pills (according to espn broadcast). he took THIRTY-FIVE PILLS. what, so the first 34 pain killers were fine, but as soon as he took that multi-vitamin, it was emergency room time? look. i know the publicist is responsible for trying to keep t..'s public image such that he can garner licensing contracts, future football contracts, even post-football career in the commentator's booth or whatever. but just admit that it's a hard time for him and his family and thank the well-wishes of those who care. don't just friggin' LIE. it'll only make you look like a bigger doofus later.

Well, you should probably take the time to try to find out then.

I sure am not trying to downplay the severity of suicide, nor do I believe that such news isn't saddening. It seems to me that we are merely arguing semantics.

No, you. are. Now please stick to the topic at hand or vacate the thread and let the people who want to discuss this story do so.

I didn't go off-topic at all. *shakes head* The thread is about a celebrity attempting to commit suicide, and that's precisely what I discussed.

Whatever.

I don't think he tried to commit suicide. I think this story got carried away. He probably just got fucked up, and ended up going too far. It's easy to take 5 or 6 of those things at a time. I mean, the guy is going to play on Sunday. If he didn't care about life he wouldn't be preparing for the upcoming week. Come on...

Besides, name one pro athlete that committed suicide. They don't. (Don't even f***ing try and google it either...)

Lol. Looks like the story's not true. It's like a flashback to your threads in 2003, SDW...

Without even looking I can come up with two pro football player's names off the top of my head who attempted suicide (I believe they were both unsuccessful)

Dimitrius Underwood

Barret Robbins

Change that, name a successful pro athlete that's committed suicide.

Barret Robbins...Good one Flounder. I can't believe I didn't get that one. (Although he was a nut-job)

Nevertheless, T.O. didn't try to kill himself.

Excellent post Marvin, though it IS more complicated than not liking peanut butter. Perhaps it belongs in a separate thread, as Terrell Owens suicide attempt is a serious thing. You'll find that the people most dead set against the idea of suicide tend to be the ones who really have no compassion for the human race (usually conservatives). I've already gathered the knowledge, and if any medical problem happens to me that I will be in pain forever, you can bet I will be solving that problem. I think everyone should have the knowledge to commit suicide if they find themselves in a position where they are helpless and unhappy.

I meant their attempts were unsuccessful. Dimitrius Underwood never had a successful career, true, but Barrett Robbins was a two time pro-bowler.

Nevertheless, you are correct, and this is all a pretty moot point

I was just listening to T.O. on the radio. He says he did not try to commit suicide, he said he just took to many pain pills.

He was probably just trying to catch agood buzz

This is just so ignorant of the reality of suicide. It's great to disconnect yourself from the reality of it and get pseudo-philosophical about it from afar, but the reality is that in most cases it, like murder, is fucking stupid and not a reasonable, calculated "solution." There is an argument to be made for suicide in cases of terminal disease, but for people who are just unhappy?

Bullshit. At the extreme least, if you have kids, you have an obligation not to kill yourself just because you're depressed or going through a divorce or can't handle school, etc. In fact, you even owe it to yourself not to do it. And you know what? If you think you don't owe it to the people around you not to totally fuck them over and potentially screw up every part of their lives over some little solvable issue, then that's a whole problem in itself.

How many people that you know who have committed suicide wouldn't have profousely thanked someone for stopping them? All of the people I know who committed suicide would have. People who kill themselves over bullshit and temporary emotional pain are by definition not thinking straight.

T.O. is a pussy.

Rush Limbaugh used to take a whole bottle to the face before every show during his heyday.

Heck, probably still does...

This just goes to show how completely naive you are. I don't know how old you are but you must be under 25.

I'm not talking about 21 year olds committing suicide. By 26, you basically know what your life is and will be like.

You say you will hurt your family, as if everyone is involved in a family. Sorry, but what if you are 45, your kids hate you, you know you will never speak to them again, and two of them are on crack, and every man you have dated has hit you? You are acting as if there is always a Walton's family reunion at the end.

What if you are 45 and your husband has left you, and you have aged badly and you are just plain ugly and know you will never have another date in your life? Sorry, but look at some people, women especially, who weren't good looking to start and also aged awfully. Are they forced to live their lives out lonely and miserable to pretend that life has a fairy tale ending?

Some people just don't have the goods to lead a happy life. The worst 2% are just ugly. 20% of people are just dysfunctional and might never have had one single, happy satisfying relationship in their life. Some people, even good people, are hooked on drugs and have tried 20 times before but are unable to get off. Some people just get tired of being poor and having a crappy family with no love. And of course some people have constant physical pain. There's lots of valid reasons for suicide.

Oh, and I forgot probably the best reason for suicide: chronically untreatable mental illness, like depression or schizophrenia.

Spindler, you are one cold, fucked up dude.

Quite the opposite. I think the only life worth living is a reasonably happy one, or at least one that is not miserable. Some people's lives are bad, and that really does bother me, though I know it doesn't bother everyone.

Sorry, just because I have given deep thought to what a person's life is like when they are born mangled by some horrible disease, don't call me cold. Just because I haven't written off all the pain in this world with some vague "God has a plan for everyone." story, don't call me cold. If a person has a need to see people happy and they meet many people in life who are just unhappy, one thinks about these kinds of things, even if the results are depressing.

But in the case of suicide, it's not really that depressing. I think being dead is much more preferable than being chronically unhappy. And realistically, there are a few percentage of people who are chronically unhappy.

Attempting suicide is not "being a pussy". It's "being too clouded to understand what to do in life".

I agree.

But read above to see that I don't believe he tried to commit suicide. My comment has nothing to do about suicide. I think he just took more than he could handle.

This whole thread makes me want to take a shower. I suggest you end this crap now.

Spindler, you said some people are too ugly to bother with living. If that isn't cold and fucked up, I don't know what is.

So you're saying people should just endure life no matter what? For what purpose? They are inevitably going to die sometime.


Two people I know tried to commit suicide and one (divorced with 2 kids) was definitely not grateful when they were prevented from doing so, the other one was successful and had a wife and two kids. The unsuccessful one died within months from injuries sustained by the suicide attempt. They were not messed up people but reasonable people who made reasonable decisions.


I entirely agree.

I'm sorry, but there is no such thing as a person who's not messed up yet commits (or attempts to commit) suicide. The very thought of committing suicide (by the way, I am suicidal, so I'm not exactly naïve to this topic) is a definite indication that something is "messed up" with the person. It is a clear indication of a mental disorder. Whether you will be able to detect it, let alone fix it, is another question, but your idea that they were "not messed up people" is just way off. It doesn't matter what kind of person you are; when you have a desire to commit suicide, something is wrong with you and you need help.

So you're saying that you have a mental disorder? Do you think you need help? If so, how are you going to go about finding it and what do you think that will achieve?


I'm not saying it's true in all cases, I am saying that it is true in some cases so people shouldn't immediately judge anyone who tries to commit suicide as being messed up, though I realise that has a very loose definition and indeed if you view suicide as wrong then trying to commit it by definition would be messed up. Because I don't personally view suicide as wrong, I don't consider it an irrational or messed up thing to do. In many cases, I would consider not committing suicide to be the irrational thing to do.

Don't talk down to me. Particularly when you make comments like:

Really? Because at 26 my wife and I were still a couple years from getting married, we were still mulling over grad degrees and certainly weren't anywhere near having kids yet.

You base your understanding of the world on two dimensional hypotheticals? What a joke. And "just plain ugly"? What are you, 12?

You are making a common amateur philosophical mistake. Your philosophy relies on an unrealistic and idealized model of human decision-making that neglects the actual real-world causes of suicide and supports it with shallow, imaginary hypothetical situations. The long and short of it is that your 10 cent philosophy based on imaginary 2D hypotheticals is all fun and games until the real world shows up at the door and someone ends up dead.

I've had to personally deal with 4 suicides in the past 10 years. The most recent was a week ago friday. He left behind two young sons, a loving family and jeopordized a whole company, including 80 jobs and millions of investors' dollars. Remember, insurance and contracts, even business ones, many times are voided by suicide. That's just the tip of the iceberg, and it's just one example. I don't need to make up hypotheticals.

No, I'm saying that your unrealistic philosophy is dangrous.

Right. Instead of helping people you care about overcome their problems, you tell them, "yeah, your life sucks. just go kill yourself."


Thank god I don't have friends or family members like you.

I don't disagree that there are times when suicide might be a reasonable option (such as for someone with a painful, terminal illness), but the are the exception and rare. Advocating suicide for people who are just unhappy with a situation they are in is plain fucking stupid. End of story.

Multiple


Yes.


I appreciate your concern, but this is certainly not the right place to discuss that.


I just don't think that a person can both be entirely sane yet have serious thoughts about committing suicide. Here's a few scenarios:

1) the person has had a shocking experience recently, or subconsciously (or increasingly consciously) is reminded of one in the distant past, perhaps even the childhood: a trauma. Be it an accident, a relative's death, a friend's death, etc. They could be confused into thinking their life was rendered worthless. However, this counts as "being messed up".

2) the person has a near-irreparable illness; chances of recovery are slim, and there's lots of pain to endure. This would most likely not result in suicide; if anything, it would be euthanasia.

I cannot, however, think of a case where there are such thoughts, yet no degree of "being messed up". People might not realize their trauma, or their confusion; they might not think things through as clearly as they believe they do. But for someone to be completely healthy, sane and stable, yet believe they should commit suicide? Nope, sorry; I don't think it's possible. Sounds contradictory to me. This is *not* me bashing people who consider suicide (I would be attacking myself!). I am merely trying to establish that I, after hours of contemplating this, and discussing it with friends as well, cannot think of such a scenario.


I think "wrong" is a too vague term. A better one might be "stupid". You are given an opportunity. Why waste it? Is there nothing at all that makes you happy any more? Looking at the sunshine? Playing a game? Watching a movie? Hanging out with old friends? Getting entertained? And if there is, even the slightest bit of positiveness, isn't that alone worth just living one day more?


I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree on that, but I'm still curious about possible scenarios for that.

I should note, however, that applying "rational" or "irrational" to life doesn't work for me in the least. Nothing at all about life is logical/rational. It's completely driven by randomness, emotion and irrationality.

I really think we should avoid using the term "suicide" for such a situation. Euthanasia is a completely different topic. Yes, I realize that "suicide" is just "killing oneself", and that this situation does apply there, but the connotation of suicide is "killing oneself through mental motivations", as far as I'm concerned, where "mental motivations" can be anything from "I have thought my entire life through and tried to make it rational, and I failed, therefore my life has no purpose" to "I hate my life and everything it stands for, and I see no future where this could ever change".

BTW, spindler and marvin, suicide it rarely a calculated decision. Most of the time it's due to mental illness like bipolar disorder, temporary painful situations and depression, all of which are treatable and solvable. Do you guys even realize that close to 1 in 5 people with bipolar disorder kill themselves and between 25%-50% try?