Suicide
Overview
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...

, schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

, alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

, or drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...

. Pressures or misfortunes such as financial difficulties or troubles with interpersonal relationships often play a significant role.

Over one million people die by suicide every year. The World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

 (WHO) estimates that it is the thirteenth leading cause of death worldwide and the National Safety Council rates it sixth in the United States.
Quotations

I believe often that death is good medical treatment because it can achieve what all the medical advances and technology cannot achieve today, and that is stop the suffering of the patient.

Christiaan Barnard|Christiaan Barnard, cardiac surgeon

A long illness seems to be placed between life and death, in order to make death a comfort both to those who die and to those who remain.

Jean de La Bruyere (1645–1696)

死神の附いた耳へは、意見も道理も入るまいとは思へど、さりとは愚痴の至り

To the ears of one possessed by the God of Death, reason and objections seem like so many idle complaints.

Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank – but that's not the same thing.

Joseph Conrad

Death is my final civil liberty, and I do not choose to surrender it to the state, a church or a physician.

Frederick Ellis

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Ben Franklin

The Wood of Suicides has changed since my last visit to Hell. I remember it as a tiny grove. Now it resembles a forest.

Dream; Neil Gaiman, The Sandman (Vertigo)|The Sandman 4

 
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