prevention is better than cure. except suicide

There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that.

A. Camus 

Kate Spade. Anthony Bourdain. Those are the names that started Debate On The Badness Of Suicide in 2018. The previous year, it was Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington. 2014, Robin Williams.

Did I say "debate"? My bad, I meant "pandering". Children and fish don't talk. Neither do the suicides. So, presented below is an idea you're going to hear only in the outskirts. Obscure, not suburban.

Prevention is better than cure. It is hardly a controversial claim; far from it, it's almost a truism. There is, however, a caveat to it, that has remained unnoticed. It simply does not apply to suicide.

Let's consider some standard examples first, where the proverb is patently obvious. It is better to get vaccinated against measles than to be treated for it. It is better not to be obese than to suffer from diabetes. It is better not to smoke than have chemotherapy. Because disease sucks. There are very simple chains of causation applying:

unhealthy behaviour => increased risk of disease

disease => inferior quality of life

It is not unhealthy behaviour that is intrinsically bad, but the probability of resulting diseases. Those are bad. So, rather than deal with the effect, we address the cause. It is easier. It is cheaper. It treats you before you experience any syndromes of sickness. It works.

How does suicide prevention fit into this scheme, however?

suicide => ?

Suicide prevention prevents suicide instead of curing... what, exactly? There is nothing to be cured if suicide is not prevented, because there is no agent to be treated anymore. Suicide is not the cause. It is the effect. Thus, this is the revised scheme:

unfortunate circumstances => suicide

Suicide prevention is not prevention, it is cure.

But, wait a minute. It's not even that, is it? When we treat infection with antibiotics, we desire to restore individual's health, not merely keep him alive. Suicide prevention, on the other hand, does exactly what the name implies. It prevents suicide, but it does not address the underlying causes. Those remain unchanged and those are the precise reason why one would want to kill themselves in the first place.

What is suicide prevention, then? It is a social cure.

We don't give a single damn about the quality of life of would-be/have-been suicides. That strongly suggests that we are not actually after their well-being, but rather magically eradicating the problem of suicide. Just having it disappear, like with it there would be no more suffering existing either.

The problem with suffering is, it isolates. It isn't vocal. Suicide, on the other hand, given the existing taboo on it, hits the headlines like a wrecking ball. Only then do we consider the suicide may have been suffering.

Or do we? Well, here it is how the knee-jerk reaction looks like, judge it for yourself. Reddit is having a thread on suicide prevention (just remember to keep in line or you'll be thrashed). Or if you prefer classic journalism, an article on suicide necessarily includes a hotline number and a cliche.

This is all we can do. Provide a number to a suicide hotline. Claim you are not alone. And that it gets better. And that your loved ones will miss you, you egoistic piece of shit. Now, we've done something good, we have that empowering feeling of efficacy. We've signalled how much we care. We've saved lives. We are good people.

And as for the closing remark for you, reader:

It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.

E. M. Cioran