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Comment by mikeash | Hacker News Reader

What a terrifying sentiment. I'm astonished at how attracted people are to theories where problems are necessarily the fault of the person experiencing them. Hey, if you're suffering, there's an easy solution: just choose not to! Gee, why didn't I ever think of that.

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I think I took something different from it than others are.

Many people choose not to suffer, because "suicide is an option". Or pills. Or therapy. Or, the lucky ones, they can switch it off.

Depression (noted in another comment) further limits the ways by which one can control the suffering brought on by pain. I know this well. Many of us do.

The strong will to live inherent in most humans means that suicide is typically not a choice people can make. That's kind of my whole point: the fact that anybody can ever make this choice is remarkable. But to take the possibility of suicide and thereby declare that suffering is a choice makes no sense to me. It may be for some, but not for most.

You did see that I listed other options, right?

Does it matter? There are plenty of people suffering from problems that can't be fixed by pills or therapy and who are not mentally capable of suicide. Suffering may be a choice for some, but it is not a choice for many.

I give up; you've checked out of the conversation and I don't believe I'm effectively choosing the words to match my feelings. Sorry if I caused any angst.

is it really that astonishing? it means that you're in complete control of your experience. quite a powerful statement. this isn't a blame game, no one's pointing fingers at anyone and saying, 'gee just think more positively man" or whatever. it's a personal strategy for managing one's own suffering, and a quite powerful one at that.

Pointing fingers and telling people to think more positively is a really common reaction to depression. I think that's why I reacted so strongly to it: it sounds so much like a common counterproductive refrain.

Agree, it is a definite common reaction, and completely counterproductive.

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