Life insurance companies will not pay survivors of people who commit suicide. This is a holdover from a time when people decided to treat suicide as an act of selfishness, probably part of the same mindset that decided that suicide should be treated as an illegal act rather than an extension of real illness. This same mindset refuses to acknowledge mental illness as "real sickness" such as a physical illness. It is seen as a weakness of character rather than the very real medical problem that it is.
It is time that suicide is recognized as an extension of a true sickness and not to see the sufferer as any worse than a person afflicted with a physical sickness. Survivors of those who commit suicide deserve to be paid death benefits just as much as survivors of a person who dies of cancer or in an accident. Why should the family be punished?
Of course I acknowledge that insurance companies are heartless, money-grubbing entities. But when society as a whole changes its point of view, they may be forced to change their policies.
Suicide is a reaction to a very real problem. Mental illness is real, not a choice that people make. We cannot stop fighting to end the stigma.
Blessed be,
Lily
It is time that suicide is recognized as an extension of a true sickness and not to see the sufferer as any worse than a person afflicted with a physical sickness. Survivors of those who commit suicide deserve to be paid death benefits just as much as survivors of a person who dies of cancer or in an accident. Why should the family be punished?
Of course I acknowledge that insurance companies are heartless, money-grubbing entities. But when society as a whole changes its point of view, they may be forced to change their policies.
Suicide is a reaction to a very real problem. Mental illness is real, not a choice that people make. We cannot stop fighting to end the stigma.
Blessed be,
Lily
