To me suicide triggers the feeling that what is the ultimate meaning of life to me?
Is suicide a good / bad thing? to me depends on whether you believe in the concept of predetermined existence or not?
i.e. if a person is meant to get off the planet (by suicide) then they will, ok they have no more to deal with. Though if they were not meant to succeed in suicide? then it will not happen, no matter how well it was calculated & then they have to come to terms with the consequences of their new physical and mental state.
As far as what any one else experiences as a consequence of this persons actions, is their own individual path (lesson) in life to come to terms with, to me this is not good or bad only the process of living.
Predetermined life path appeals to me as it allows me to detach emotionally from an event like suicide, as this type of event is usually out side of your control and knowledge, so by saying this event was going to happen any way, I only have to look at the emotions triggered by the event eg sadness (loss), anger (loss of control), also see what expectations I had about this situation. The final outcome for the successful suicide is; 1. the death of a person. 2.if the suicide was unsuccessful then that person has to come to terms with their new state of existence? 3. the emotional consequences of that action, which trigger emotions in others associated with that person or event, have to be dealt with.

I may seem simplistic in my view, though to me the ultimate end result of living is achieving a state of mind where I have no fears (this includes the fear of death), no expectations & hence have no reason to change anything? only witness events as they happen. Once I achieve this witness state then my mind will not be looking at death as being significant, only appreciating the scenery, the ambiance, etc., example; notice the cool breeze as it passes over my skin, hear the sounds of my surroundings, seeing the light refractory patterns coming from the scenery like in a meditation. Though having full knowledge of the social order and rules as well as being in touch with my feelings which gives me a full overview of my world.
I have not read all this thread to this post, so am only commenting on the last 5 posts. Have I missed the point of this topic???

The point of the topic is a bit diffuse anyway.

You have stated your personal Existential purpose.
I can say this:
There are others (goal sets). They vary.
Having well-defined, partially acheivable,
and mostly mental goals puts you beyond the sate
of mind of many suicidal people.

leonardomenderes, I feel that to bring the subject of suicide up in forum, would only assume the reason for this would be to prevent future cases arising?
From my way of thinking this is impossible, as the societal rules, taboos and laws are preset in such a way to protect & support a limited few, while triggering emotional conflicts in the majority of other people, the spectrum of stress symptoms manifesting from these emotional conflicts will vary between occasional headache to suicide.
Unless the self esteem of the whole population is raised? ie feel comfortable enough to openly communicate emotional problems with supportive, responsible people who have the knowledge to make changes? then nothing is going to change?

As a teenager I attempted to commit suicide, only to find the bottle of pills I swallowed were very mild muscle relaxants which gave me a terrific night sleep, after which I lost interest in that action and struggled with life till now.
Only I was lucky, in that prior to my suicide attempt, I was believing that every one else knew what was going on in the world and not me, I now realize this is crap.
What is going on with the bulk of the world, is a mass of
addictions to; fitting into social groups, money, status, or some otherwise self validating process keeping them from being happy & supportive of others.

My new way of being is not to emotionally buy into the games people play, instead find my own peace & happiness.
I am not Buddhist though feel that that philosophy does have some interesting points (actually these points are common to most religions). the main point of interest is; that we are part of an endless cycle of life and death "re-incarnation". The value of this is to say that if a person commits suicide it is no better or worse than a person who lives to an old age and dies of organ failure.
Though society rejects this as some people are afraid that if this is accepted? Then they may be murdered & labeled as suicide or similar (these people are not prepared to deal with their fear of death), hence they create laws to stop others from being self resoponsible.

Theories here about how to prevent it have been all over the map, including
even considering it immoral, which seems silly to me. Western religious types cop
to that, under the concept of how we should not take control of our motivation
(that's 'selfish', God owns that, etc.).
When suicide has been raised in this forum before, it usually centered around
whether or not it was sane, and whether it should be permitted (a silly discussion).
Most people fumble around with an answer as to why. Your approach seems to fit an
Existential axis. That fits my theories, but I can't be smug about it. The
majority of people describing their experiences talk about personal belonging or
family pressure, and have a strong general depression. One mentioned a really
strong chronic anxiety. I think an interesting question might be how many roads
lead to suicidal thoughts. The more ways in, the more different ways out need to
be thought of. Philosophy (modern) doesn't usually get near the topic. Specialized
Psychologies usually address it, or Eastern Religion/Philosophies, via despair
theories. Of the Continental philosophies, I think the Existential covers your
general area of motivations, while Eastern religion gets more at the nub.

leonardomenderes, suicide to me is a choice, not good or bad, moral or immoral only a choice.
The fear of death is possibly the sum total of all our fears. It takes lots of will power to choose to challenge this barrier, to me a suicide bomber must have guts! possibly motivated by grief and anger though still lots of emotional strength to choose this outcome.

This is another story which I am not interested in getting into, though will say that when some one choose to commit suicide then they have had their internal "feeling self" put down so much so, that the concept of living is more painful than to challenge that boundary.

If a person chooses to commit suicide then they must be very unhappy even to take on the social persuasion that some extremist groups put on potential suicide bombers to further their cause?

To me this underlying cause is the basis of the problem and must be addressed in order to make change happen.

I did not join this forum to discuss this subject, though was unable to find the post which initially triggered my interest & that was; "individuality vs. conformity"?
If you know this post? Would appreciate a link? I am not trying to avoid this issue, just not interested in it. Feel free to contact me on other issues if you feel that there is value in doing so? as nonconformity is much more interesting to me.

Suicide bombers have been persuaded that their existence has more
meaning in a bombing death. Meaning is a very powerful thing.


Anyway, sorry..

conformity/individuality, let's see:

www.ephilosopher.com/philosophy-forums/open-forum/creativity/
www.ephilosopher.com/philosophy-forums/g...-self%11actualizing/

individual vs. social:
www.ephilosopher.com/philosophy-forums/g...and-social-identity/

Didn't see that exact title..