"Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it; since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live."
-Charles Caleb Colton

"They tell us that suicide is the greatest act of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person."
- Arthur Schopenhauer in his essay 'On Suicide'

"To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill."
-Aristotle
 
Is suicide a form of bravery, cowardice, or both?

As somebody who has lost a relative to suicide, I'm going to go ahead and say it's a bit of both.

It's cowardly to go ahead and take your own life just to let everybody else who cares and loves about you to pick up the pieces you've left behind. Leaving them wondering why you couldn't talk to them about what's wrong/trying to help them, just leaving that person who cared about you in awe and disbelief.
It's like a domino effect, it's going to scar someone in one way or another. If you were a child and you lost your parents/siblings to suicide, then chances are (imo) that's going to mess you up a little. Perhaps not in a very bad way, but having difficulty to trust people for example.
Not only that, but it's said that people who had relatives/friends that took their own life would be more at risk at taking their own life too.

At the same time, I guess you could say it's brave. For some people it must be very physically and emotionally hard to tell someone how your feeling.
There could be thousands of reasons preventing you from telling someone how you feel whether it's because they may not understand, the fear of judging of you, or you're 'not normal' for feeling what you feel.
There is a lot to take into account before deciding whether or not that that person was indeed brave or cowardly to do what they did.

As someone who had suicidal thoughts I can say that it's different for everyone.
Maybe it's cowardly because you take an easy route out of your problems or you are simply to afraid to live.
Maybe it's brave because you face the end itself and aren't afraid of it.
But the suicidal thoughts made me no longer fear dead, it comes anyway you can't do anything against it. And it's hard for people that haven't had those thoughts to be really accurate about it because those thoughts basicly remove any other thoughts you have, it makes you feel that there is only one option when ofcourse there are more options but you can no longer think of that.
So is suicide brave or cowardly, it's neither.

I'm going to say it totally depends on the situation at hand.

Say someone is terminally ill, suffering worse each day and waiting for the inevitable then I would say suicide is brave.

On the other hand if you are young, with no physical medical condition (not going into mental conditions) and commit suicide for what could be seen as a silly reason I'd go ahead and say that it was cowardly to just give up on life.

So for me it is situation dependant and that's all I can say.

I don't think it is cowardice.
It is a definite solution to what probably would have been a temporary problem, sure all the ones that are left behind will be hurt by the suicidal death but very few have the courage to proceed with ending their own life at own will.

It's a way out, like any other but definite, if the person believes there is no other way, everything else failed, what are we to stop him/her?
Everyone should be free to do it, no one should be forced to live.

I wouldn't say suicide is cowardly, because people have their own personal reasons for wanting to take their own life and who are you to judge them?
Although I do feel people need to be more aware of what is going on with others, and making sure the people you care about are okay and letting them know that you are there for them if they ever want to talk about anything. A lot of the time, friends and family members who are shocked by the suicide were unfortunately unaware of the troubles somebody they cared about was going through, and because of this, they hadn't stopped to ask if they were okay. A quick phone call or chat could help save someone's life.

I thought I'd share this tweet which a recent suicide victim, Chris Hardman, who committed suicide due to ongoing depression earlier this week posted a few months ago



Most of the time, suicide is only the cure for a temporary problem, which a lot of suicide victims don't realise. Which is why I wouldn't call suicide brave either, because that seems as if suicide is being glorified.

There will always be someone you can talk to whether it be a friend, family member, or even a helpline, and they can help you realise that you do deserve to be alive and that somebody does care for you.

I dont think its either brave or cowardly, taking your life sometimes is a split second thought. At times its a cry for help that goes wrong, or just that person can see no other way. 

I have known people that have suffered with depression and get into a spiral of negativity and can see no other way out.  The simplest thing to us maybe the trigger to them to seem all is lost.  They will not consider anyone else and in some situations take the lives of the family also,  These tragedies seem to hit normal families where people can see nothing wrong with them.

Termimally ill people in my opinion should have the right to end their owwn lives, after all often we wouldnt let an animal suffer so why a human?

Cries for help often goes wrong ending with the life of a person that wanted help and support.  I often think these are the most heartbreaking. 


I think people judge suicide victims harshly, we should think of the people left behind and show them compassion xxx