Americans would rather be dead than disabled: poll

Discussion in 'Serious' started by Cthippo, 11 Jul 2008.

  1. Cthippo

    Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

    Joined:
    7 Aug 2005
    Posts:
    6,783
    Likes Received:
    102
    Original story

    I earn my living transporting a lot of people who are disabled one way or another, be it from age, accident, medical condition, or mental illness and i must say that one of the lessons I've learned is that there are worse things than dying of a heart attack at 50!
     
  2. Thacrudd

    Thacrudd Where's the any key?!?

    Joined:
    27 Oct 2006
    Posts:
    1,216
    Likes Received:
    83
    If I could not use my hands, I would simply die of depression. Computing, modding, playing the guitar, drawing, and playing video games. I just could not go on, I truly envy people that are or become disbled for their will and bravery to go on.
     
  3. Oclocker

    Oclocker What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    21 Jun 2001
    Posts:
    3,194
    Likes Received:
    5
    Its funny how things can change your viewpoint, I once was friendly with a guy called tim, he lived in a care home and with severe spina bifada was very dependant on nursing staff, but he lived life fully even had a full pc system (archimedes). I remember thinking I'd rather be dead than so dependant on other people. that was mid 1988.. Roll on 20 years and much different attitude (lets just say 1/2 way to being like Tim) but when really faced with it I'll fight to stay alive ..
     
    Last edited: 11 Jul 2008
  4. Major

    Major Guest

    It's like hospitals and care homes keeping people alive for the sake of it, what's the point. They are sitting there like a rock doing nothing, that's not a life.
     
  5. EmJay

    EmJay What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    28 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    316
    Likes Received:
    0
    It's like the old joke: what does no man want, but once he has it, he doesn't want to lose it? Answer: a bald head. Same goes for a handicapped body.

    There's no bravery about it. You just wake up one morning and realise you're in that category. Crap. That's going to make the rest of your life a little different. Nothing to do but get on with it, though. Let's see if you can get out of bed without falling over today, and then go get some breakfast and watch the news. (No, I'm not handicapped, I've just observed it.)
     
  6. cpemma

    cpemma Ecky thump

    Joined:
    27 Nov 2001
    Posts:
    12,328
    Likes Received:
    55
    This is also true of 99% of the people polled, whatever they said while fit and well. They're far more likely to top themselves over something relatively trivial (to an outsider).
    QFT.
     
  7. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

    Joined:
    7 Sep 2006
    Posts:
    9,263
    Likes Received:
    302
    I'm going to abstain from the poll - I'm fighting for my life now and am not impartial. I will read you guys comments.
    John
     
  8. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

    Joined:
    23 Oct 2001
    Posts:
    34,559
    Likes Received:
    1,981
    the Wise Master has spoken the truth.

    Polls mean nothing. It is only when crunch time comes for you that you find out how you really feel.
     
  9. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

    Joined:
    23 Oct 2001
    Posts:
    34,559
    Likes Received:
    1,981
    Makes you about the only guy here qualified to comment, tbh.
     
  10. Scirocco

    Scirocco Boobs, I have them, you lose.

    Joined:
    3 Jul 2007
    Posts:
    2,128
    Likes Received:
    74
    As depressing and painful as my condition can be, there is always someone you can see that has it much worse than you do. We're rooting for you, John, revv up that feisty, independent Colorado spirit!
     
  11. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

    Joined:
    2 Jul 2004
    Posts:
    5,759
    Likes Received:
    398
    As I've been told terminal as well, just on a larger scale (less than a decade, most likely) and with my body going into full-scale revolt, I'm not sure what I'd do. With the pain and the resistance to medication, I may just decide to let go when the time comes. People don't get to appreciate the level of pain some of these conditions bring until they're faced with it themselves. If you were told there's not even any way we can make you comfortable, what would you do? We can't save you, we can't fix the damage and we can't make it any easier. That's not life, that's a life sentence of torture.
     
  12. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

    Joined:
    7 Sep 2006
    Posts:
    9,263
    Likes Received:
    302
    Ladies and Gentlemen ( I think that covers most of us).

    I've been thinking about this all day and I'll try to make this easy to read.

    Having read the article several times, I feel that the difference between disability and terminal illness has not been addressed. The guy with the broken neck accepted his disability and "moved on" even with it. This description of disability is different than a diagnosis of terminal debilitating disease in several ways. He is capable of doing things. I prefer the term differently abled to disabled. He has some measure of a life and controls his existence, making the most out of the gift of being.
    A terminal illness patient has no or very little control of their existence. We are at the mercy of the disease and often comorbidities (other diseases that become involved and need to be treated too) and we cannot be "cured", nothing to "move on" to! The best we can hope for is a friendly Dr. or Drs. that have the knowledge to treat the symptoms as they ariseand some sort of support group such as family and friends. With no possibility of any return to a "normal" lifestyle, I could see these suicide numbers in terminal illness patients being even higher. As the terminal illness progresses, most induce physiological changes as well as physical changes. Try to think of it as a spiral down. You get sick. You can't do as much. If you don't do as much you get weaker and the immune system gets weaker. Easier to get other things, colds, pneumonia, etc.
    A diagnosis of "a couple months to a couple years" for a terminal disease is a real blow.
    I said I was not impartial.
    John
     
  13. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

    Joined:
    2 Jul 2004
    Posts:
    5,759
    Likes Received:
    398
    good interpretation.

    You know, I'm not sure how people saw my comment, but when you're on your way out, now or then is a moot point. I'm not gonna commit suicide, but at the same time I'm not gonna drag on beyond my time either. Death doesn't faze me. Life stuck in a wheelchair paralyzed from the waist down and with minimal use of my left arm scares me. Coughing up blood at work or in front of my kids scares me. Passing out in public scares me. These are the things that unsettle me. NOT the death part, the dying part.

    To be told you'll live out your life in that chair is one thing. To be told don't get used to it, it's just to get you to where we can embalm you is another.

    And to know your condition doesn't HAVE to be terminal but your government cares not a bit for its people and won't make health care accessible is grounds for depression.
     
  14. Scirocco

    Scirocco Boobs, I have them, you lose.

    Joined:
    3 Jul 2007
    Posts:
    2,128
    Likes Received:
    74
    Amen on the depression. It has taken a fight of nearly 3 years to get to an official designation of disabled. It's another six months until I can get health care. It saps your savings, your assets and your will. But I've made it through this far, thanks to friends and family. Others aren't nearly so lucky when they need assistance. Fortunately, I'm not terminal or anything like that. My problems can be taken care of. But there were dark times when you question whether sticking around this plane is worth it.
     
  15. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

    Joined:
    7 Sep 2006
    Posts:
    9,263
    Likes Received:
    302
    I pre-screened for a clinical trial that supposedly would have helped last week. Thurs. I got a call from the Dr. running the trial. She had reviewed my medical records and said I was too far gone to participate. We talked for a bit and I told her about original diagnosis in 1981 and she says "You're still here?"

    I told her the truth - I was a Hell's Angel for 2 years in Omaha and Sioux city, Ia. - I KNOW HOW TO FIGHT!
    Kick me when I'm down. Fell right off my Christmas card list. Cold Beeyatch Dr.
    John
     
  16. airchie

    airchie What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    22 Mar 2005
    Posts:
    2,136
    Likes Received:
    2
    I think I would prefer to die too tbh. Depends how disabled I would be.
    If I were able to play games then I might bother to stay but who knows.
    There's so many variables to consider I don't think you can say decisively one way or the other until you're there.

    One thing I do think, which might be controversial and I hope nobody here takes it personally, is that we attach far too high a value to human life.
    What I do believe in is quality of life.
    Its for this reason I don't get too bothered by scenes of starvation etc in 3rd-world countries.
    If we were to all donate all our life savings to them to get them the food, they'd survive.
    Great, now how do we feed them for the rest of their lives?
    How do we feed ourselves since we can't grow enough food for the over-populated planet?
    I do have sympathy for anyone forced to suffer and believe anyone who takes delight in other's misery is sick.
    I just don't think we should always make every effort to save people who will have no kind of life if we do save them.

    I don't know if I've put my point across without sounding like a real idiot but its nearly 5am... :(
     
  17. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

    Joined:
    7 Sep 2006
    Posts:
    9,263
    Likes Received:
    302
    Interesting comments. None take wrong by me but I need to think somewhat about these comments. The quality of life comment is very appropriate.
    One of the concerns is our age difference and what we have done as opposed to what we might do carrying on.
    Might have to make a new thread - Trying to Mod while terminally ill. What used to take me an hour, now takes me several days with luck. or How to Mod when the spirit is willing but the body refuses.
    Living in a 14 X 20 foot room sitting in a wheeled chair and keeping everything within arms length tends to cramp one's creativity. Think about the cubie workers. Now do that at home. One's life distilled to watching others enjoy what was a passion for you. Don't teach that in Psychology 101.
    John
     
  18. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

    Joined:
    2 Jul 2004
    Posts:
    5,759
    Likes Received:
    398
    I feel you on that one, too. All my mods are done with one working arm and one barely functioning one. Hence the not always straight cuts.

    My friends gave me a bench vise this year. I could have kissed them. I now have two "hands".
     
  19. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

    Joined:
    23 Oct 2001
    Posts:
    34,559
    Likes Received:
    1,981
    Doesn't mean you're not objective.

    They don't really teach about it until final year of professional qualification, to be honest (when trainees do their final year of three of clinical placements), and even then it is a difficult area for inexperienced people to work in. Fields like (neuro-)rehabilitation, palliative care and cancer used to be some of the most difficult areas to recruit psychologists into, although that is now changing.

    Although experiencing it from the outside looking in (as a professional) may be useful in offering a useful different perspective on a problem, it is very different from actually living it --hence you may not be impartial, but you sure have the most important viewpoint.
     
  20. EmJay

    EmJay What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    28 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    316
    Likes Received:
    0
    Ah, now it makes sense. I'd observed that and wondered what was going on. The mental fallout from even mild disabilities is hell. :wallbash:
     

Share This Page