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First, I apologize if this is too heavy of a question, so I will delete upon request. However, a thought came to me recently…

Isn’t it normal for people to occasionally have suicidal thoughts and/or thoughts of self harm?

I mean, think of it this way …every human being gets sad now and then, right? So it seems like this would be a normal effect from it. We pathologize things like this, but I’m wondering if it’s just common to the human experience.

I know it sounds like an incredibly stupid question, but that’s why I’m posting it here.

Before you get concerned, no I am not going to harm myself. I have a lot of really good days too and have recently seen a psychiatrist to ask some questions. I’m in a very good mood right now. So all is good here. Just had this one question. Because I realized that I’ve always been kind of that way when I’m in a really bad mood is all!

Thanks!

  • Kornblumenratte@feddit.org
    0·
    18 days ago

    I don’t know about “normal people”. Among the psychiatric patients I met, most people with addiction, most people with psychosis and most people with personality disorders (other than borderline) deny suicidal ideas altogether. People suffering from depression usually admit to having had suicidal ideas at some time during there life, but even among them there are quite a lot denying to have had any ever. And a quite lot of traumatized people suffer from mostly ego–dystone intrusive suicidal thoughts.

    So I wager that it’s not “normal” to have suicidal thoughts, unless you’re depressed, borderline or traumatized. (Though arguably, it might be getting “normal” to get depressed in today’s living conditions…)

    And yes, every human gets sad every now and then, if they have a reason to be sad – but why should anyone get suicidal thoughts just because they are sad? AFAIK sadness is not linked to suicidal ideas, unless the sadness us a symptom of depression. It’s almost impossible to find reliable data on the relation of non–depressive situative sadness and suicidal thoughts with a cursory search, though.

    Self harm is even stranger, I’ve seen self harm only with borderline and trauma. But that’s just my experience.