euthanasia for depression patients

I was reading blogs of the survivors of family members who have committed suicide. I've recently forgotten how horrible it must be for those people. When studying psychology, it's pretty easy to get lost in the numbers and forget there is a family back home mourning.

It got me thinking, though, reading from those people's views. I wish people wouldn't view suicide so negatively. It is tragic, definitely. But sometimes I feel some families place the guilt on themselves. It is sort of like a family whose parent developed cancer and died. Depression is a long term illness, it doesn't just set upon a person and cause superficial pain. It rewires your brain, makes you think differently, changes the chemical balance of different integral neural transmitters and it HURTS. There are a lot of ways to develop depression, just like there are a lot of ways to abuse your body and develop cancer. And there are times where you are just genetically predisposed to it, and you'll get it no matter what great of a life you lead—both cancer or depression.

Also, it is completely possible that even through strenuous therapies and heavy drug dosing, that a person can't be cured of their depression. Or that they might be okay, in remission, and then have the depression suddenly come back full throttle. It's a tough disease to manage.

For the most part, I think euthanasia is still viewed more positively than suicide. I would never want anyone to commit suicide and "give up", but they're not "giving up"—that's too light of a term for it. They have to battle feeling worthless, and in pain, even though it's neurological and there is no actual physical affliction, they still feel actual physical pain.

I always hear families of cancer victims say "at least they are no longer in pain" and that's what families of depression victims should come to realize too.