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443 points jaredwiener | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.485s | source
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mcdeltat ◴[] No.45038357[source]
Many people focusing a lot on the interaction between the guy and ChatGPT, and I would like to provide a different perspective as someone who's been in a similar position.

If you are seriously coming close to ending your own life, so many things around you have gone awry. Generally, people don't want to die. Consider: if an acquaintance suggested to you how a noose could be made, would you take the next step and hang yourself? Probably not. You have to be put through a lot of suffering to come to a point in life where ending it all is an appealing option.

Life had failed that guy and that's why he committed suicide, not because a chatbot told him to. Just the fact that a chatbot is his closest friend is a huge red flag for his wellbeing. The article says how he appeared so happy, which is exactly an indicator of how much disconnect there was between him and those around him. He wasn't sharing how he was truly feeling with anyone, he probably felt significant shame around it. That's sad. What else may have gone amiss to lead him to such a point? Issues with health? Social troubles? Childhood problems? Again, it's not a healthy state of things to be considering suicide, even including teenage quirkiness. His case is a failure of family, friends, and society. Discussing ChatGPT as the cause of his death is ignoring so many significant factors.

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1. kayodelycaon ◴[] No.45039038[source]
Mental health is a lot more complicated than that. A visible external cause isn’t necessary. Things are completely normal people wouldn’t have any problem with can be extremely traumatizing to someone else

Teenagers may not have the life experience to handle what adults find simple.

Neural divergence can be a major factor as well.

Telling a child with ADHD they just need to try harder is a recipe for life-long self-hatred.

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2. mcdeltat ◴[] No.45042095[source]
This is exactly my point. I said "life failed him" not "he failed life". All of your examples are the environment around you not giving you sufficient support. Struggling because you have had traumatising experiencing or neurodivergence should not be normalised. Labelleing someone as neurodivergent shouldn't be an excuse for us to be ok with them suffering. Getting to the point of considering suicide should be seriously examined. Society needs to do better to support people of all varieties.