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Comment by ZpJuUuNaQ5 | Hacker News Reader

>You really don't want to end up with dementia and related illnesses, it totally sours everyone's view of you.

I completely agree that the disease is horrible, but your conclusion is bizarre. When you are in that condition, how anyone views you is the least of your worries.

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Framing it as an obsession of rememberance or legacy distracts from the more crucial point: the fact that you will be causing chaotic emotional, psychological and physical distress in the real world to those you cared about. Again we should stop framing it as some weird obession with legacy and instead stick to the facts on the ground.

Is your position that you don’t personally care how people remember you?

Many people think badly about the mentally ill act when they are suffering through an episode. Should they be allowed to die by suicide because what people think of them after they come out of psychosis? Should embarrassment be the bar we are setting for suicide?

Yes, you are absolutely correct.

Do you also not care how people think of you now?

Live your life for you not for others opinions which are fleeting anyways.

No. Treat other people well and don't live as if you were the only person in the universe who matters.

How would you square building and maintaining flourishing relationships if you don't care for others?

You can care for others while not being weighed down by someone elses expectations.

Of course I don't. Life is a short, temporary experience, and I don't want to spend this time wondering what others think of me. It does not matter at all. I am nothing, just a briefly conscious lump of cells. I will die and turn to dust, just like about 100 billion of others before me. Nothing that I say, think, dream, experience, do, or how I act or look like will ever matter.

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