Why does our mind & body allow us to commit suicide?

[Mark T]

Just from a random discussion I had last night with a friend. We were talking about how our bodies are efficient at repairing damage that our body has sustained. Even in extreme cases of alcoholism and heavy smoking doctors generally say that if you quit your bad habit, your body will repair itself over time. Many people suffer horrific injuries that we really shouldn't survive but somehow our body is able to keep our life going even when we are in an unconscious state.

We then came onto the subject of suicide. In theory you would think that no matter what our feeling was, our body and mind should put life as our priority. I know that in a majority of cases most people who attempt suicide are normally intoxicated with either drugs or alcohol. I have read about some cases where people have just been depressed or suffered abuse and they have decided to take their own life.

I also looked into whether animals have been known to commit suicide. Most reports that I have read suggest that there is no clear evidence that animals commit suicide. Some Octopus have been known to not eat after giving birth resulting in them dying. Some spiders also die from starvation so their young have something to feed on.

I'm just really surprised that our body and mind allows us to commit suicide when it tries so hard in other circumstances to keep us alive.

Just looking for some other thoughts on the subject.

 

[Duke]

Your healing processes are automatic physical actions that your body performs on a genetic level, unconsciously. You don't have to consciously tell your cuts to heal or your liver to regenerate.

The thing about healing is this: much of it has to do with attitude. Even though it is subconscious, healing will not happen aggressively if the person is depressed and has given up hope. People die from fixable things, and recover from allegedly-terminal conditions, based on how hard they mentally try to get better. So even though we have no conscious control over our healing processes, our mind can overcome their best efforts.

So your conscious mind can definitely make a decision to do something permanent, and overrule the survival instinct - particularly in the short amount of time it may take to actually commit suicide.

 

[Mark T]

So I guess it depends on how you value your life and your current state of mentality. A person with children for example might subconsciously fight for life harder than say a homeless person who does not anything to live for.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Duke hit the nail on the head there 👍


Have you ever had a girlfriend which you went with for a long time? If so, how did you feel when you broke up? (If that ever happened). You'll feel sad, you can't be bothered to jump around and smile like you did everyday. That would a perfect example to your question...

 

[Kylehnat]

I also looked into whether animals have been known to commit suicide. Most reports that I have read suggest that there is no clear evidence that animals commit suicide.

There's an interesting thought there. In humans, it has been proven that depression/suicidal tendencies can be traced to a neurological imbalance. Hence, one would expect that this also happens in nature (why shouldn't it?). It would then follow that some animals could be depressed, and not want to live. However, animals do not have as many ways to accomplish the task. They don't have guns, knives, pills, or car exhaust. Sure, they can starve themselves, but there are many other physical diseases which could cause animals to starve or dehydrate. They could "let" themselves be taken by a predator, but that would be hard for us to tag as a suicide rather than natural predation.

Of course, humans are far more succeptable to depression/suicide due to societal factors which aren't present in the animal world. As far as I know, there are no purging, coke-binging supermodel raccoons out there that cause the rest of them to hate their bodies.

 

[opelgt1969]

My grandfater which passed away some 40 years ago had a black dog that went everywhere with him. He did home repairs so the dog got to go with him. Anyway my grandfather had cancer and went from about 250 lb (not fat just a big man) to about 100 lb when he passed. I was young and wasn't allowed to go into his "room" as he had gotten very moody. His dog was not in very good shape at the time. About 2 days before he passed the dog left and didn't return. We don't know for a fact but think the dog went off to die on it's own. I have read and heard of pets doing this but have not seen any data on this.

 

[Omnis]

Actually, Opel, my mom's family's first pet (Mr. McGregor, a schnauzer) ran away from home to die. They found him dead on someone's lawn the next day with no trauma or anything.

My uncle's dog has also tried to repeatedly escape from his house before being put down due to a massive cancerous growth found in her torso.

 

[Casio]

There's an interesting thought there. In humans, it has been proven that depression/suicidal tendencies can be traced to a neurological imbalance. Hence, one would expect that this also happens in nature (why shouldn't it?).

However, do animals understand the concept of death well enough, to enable them to make a conscience decision to die?

 

[TopHat]

I think that the pets try to leave because they love their owners so much that they don't want to leave a dead body in the house. I think that animals do understand the feeling of psychological pain, and they comprehend what us humans are feeling.

My cats seem to actively cheer me up when I am sad, they'll come into my room just meowing and stuff, being generally cute.