Difficulty Committing Suicide

Can someone explain to me why the human brain wants to protect itself so much? When standing on the roof of a tall building, it is incredibly difficult to take that final leap.

What's the psychological reason for this? @linearb?? You are expect in psych.

 

Don't do it. Seriously. Even your own unconscious does not want you too.

 

It isn't psychological. It's an ingrained survival instinct to protect the species. A lot of suicides are driven by anger at another turned inward, not by a desire to die. Anger can override the survival instinct.

There's a book you should read, Suicide and Attempted Suicide, by Geo Stone. It will cover the topic in great detail. Short link: http://www.amazon.com/Suicide-Attempted-Geo-Stone/dp/0786709405/ You can read the beginning of the book on Amazon, but you'll need to check it out at your local library because it's very expensive.

 

@Atlantis I appreciate the compliment but I'm barely a master of my own psychology

I think @Cheza nailed it.

 

Being acrophobic, I can't get anywhere near the edge of a tall building. Even in the darkest days of my depression, I couldn't have done it, the irrational fear of heights would have held me back.

I once did a parachute jump, but have no recollection whatever of climbing out onto the little bar of the wing of the plane and throwing myself backwards....such is the strangeness of the brain. Everyone was hugely impressed with how quickly, smoothly and fearlessly I did it, but it actually was my alter-ego and I cannot take any of the credit.

Seems a good place here to say a pet hate of mine is when individuals say they have 'vertigo' when they mean acrophobia. As someone who has vertigo from time to time, all I can say is they are entirely different, but I'm not sure which is worse!

Fungus.

 

Regarding the OPs' question: what @Cheza said. Like it or not, we are hard wired to survive. As are many organisms.

 

It's not actually dying that's the worst part,it's knowing you're going to.
When the brain is in such a distress functionality-wise it can give you this feeling of dying.

I have to agree that anger overwrites certain feelings in your brain that makes those feelings to be non existent.
Hence why you have suicide bombers and people committing suicide out of anger and think it's them not being afraid of death.It's quite the contrary when the brain is in distress beyond your control and you actually experiencing the feeling of dying.It's not a choice,and you really feel like something greater than you is controlling you.

That's irony working in mysterious ways.

 

When fear, anxiety and hopelessness, overrides our survival instincts, we are indeed in grave danger, of hurting ourselves.

 

A little fact...Those suicide bombers and fighters are also hyped up or drugged out of their minds. It is a known fact ISIS and other Militant Groups drug their "soldiers" Lots and lots of drugs.

 

Well in either case it shuts down a certain feeling.Still doesn't change the latter of my reply.

 

They don't just suicide bomb out of anger. It is alot more complex than that is all I am saying. Of course something has to override the basic instinct to survive. Also, common antidepressants can cause this to happen to.

 

Are you standing at the edge of a tall building? I think you know the answer really..

 

"Everybody Wants to go to Heaven, But Nobody Wants to Die" Albert King

Albert King -- Everybody Wants to go to...