Suicide Fantasies: March 2009

Friday, March 13, 2009

I followed along without the desire to challenge the statements captured in this article (click quote below to proceed to full article) until I arrived at the last one (quotation below). How short-sighted to posit that a) social isolation is the exclusive cause of loneliness and inherently detrimental to evolution, so it follows that b) social isolation is a health-risk factor equivalent in severity to health-risks that lead to gruesome & premature death or a significant compromise in the quality of life. As if the implied seed of loneliness (aka solo time) is impervious to the psychic greenthumb, equipped with the artful insight to tell the difference between a plant that prefers sun to shade or rock to silt. As if the condition of solitude itself is the unconditional carcinogen and not one's lack of confidence to trust their intuition against cultural or communal standards on sanity or normality. This Chi-Town MD overlooks that many voluntary loners are in touch with their need to hear their internal dialogue and invalidates their ability to recognize that an overload of external hub-bub and aggressive projective identification cock-blocks the intimate relationship to their autonomous perceptions. Similarly, I believe there are those whose deafening ruminations drive them to drown out the neurotic noise or seek a regular dose of distraction from their existential paralysis by participating in an elevated consensual, collaborative and/or heavily manifested reality...Everyone has a custom cocktail for achieving a balance within or a method for quieting the storm...a self-prescribed method to prevent suicide...The true health-risk is failing to schedule regular check-ups with the expert who may lie dormant within, but employs a 24-hour receptionist staring at an empty schedule...Heavy [on the analogies]

John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, has highlighted social isolation as a health-risk factor on par with obesity and smoking. "Loneliness is like hunger and thirst—a signal to help your genes survive," Cacioppo says. "When you're lonely, there's a stress response in your body, and it's not healthy to sustain that for a long time."