It changed the way I thought about everything. I had to reanalyze every belief I held and was far too busy doing that to be particularly sad.
More importantly though, it gave me hope. The general air of optimism and confidence and defiance made me feel proud to be a part of it. Before finding this place, the thing that bothered me most about life was that it was absolutely certain to end. After reading the Methods of Rationality, I realized that I didn’t have to go down without a fight so long as I had even a chance of winning.
Besides all that, Lesswrong gave me a sense of belonging. People here seem so similar to me, which is a pretty rare thing. Some of them seem atypical in almost exactly the way I’m atypical. Their quirks are basically my quirks. And the way they act, you’d get the idea that they think those things actually make them better people. It’s a pretty powerful emotion when you come across it for the first time.
So… this is a really personal issue and I’m not sure I have any business bringing it up here, but I’m going to anyway:
I’ve been on and off suicidal for the past 8 or so years (I’m 18, btw), but I’ve been especially depressed for the last couple of months. My exact emotions are pretty complicated and the motivations behind my death wish differ from moment to moment. 2 days ago I decided to commit to killing myself and I’ve spent the time between then and now readying myself for suicide. In the past 10 minutes I’ve had a change of heart brought on by guilt.
Help.
I imagine the wise thing to do would be to seek professional assistance, but I don’t want to for various reasons. I’ve told several friends that I want to die, but they don’t really believe me because of the casual way I bring it up and my disposition towards seeking attention. There was a case of suicide by someone in this community awhile ago and I believe some of the commenters on that thread offered to talk to anyone who was feeling self destructive, but that was some time ago, so I’d like to inquire as to whether the offer still stands.
I think I’m likely to have more in common with the average Lesswronger than with any volunteer I could talk to, which is why I’m leaving this post on this site. My depression all but disappeared for over 2 years after finding this place, so naturally it’s the first place I turn to. I’m not exactly sure if I have anything to say about my problems or if talking will even help, but I need to do something to fend off the desire to kill myself, and this is my way of committing. I’d appreciate anything anyone here has to offer in the way of advice.
Again, I’m truly sorry if this issue is inappropriate here and I swear I’m not trolling. I normally use a different account here, but I didn’t want to associate anything rationality-based I have to say in the future with this problem, so I re-registered under this name.
Thank you.