Have you ever thought about suicide?
Yes, you should have.
That's why I'm going to write about suicide this time with the theme of "Suicide is Leaving The Casino".

I was asked to write a report on the theme of "Thinking about Life from Death" in the university class the other day, and I was reluctant to do so, but I came to an unexpected conclusion, so I decided to write note about it.

Also, I would like to mention that this is not the kind of report that you would expect, so if someone says that it is not structured well, I will swear at them.

In other words, please read it as you see fit.
So here goes.

○Why Live Instead of Die?

Have you ever thought about suicide?
I'm sure you have at one time or another. Sometimes it was an active thought, and other times it was an intrusive thought.
And you thought that dying was the quickest way to ease your mind.

In all honesty, that's probably true.
There is no doubt that death is a shortcut to ease, because death will free us from the suffering we feel while we are alive.
If this is the case, then it should not be surprising that all of us want to die. But why don't we?

There must be a lot of people in this world who have thought about death many times, but have survived after all.
So why did they choose to live rather than die?

I may not be able to find out the reason, but I have come to a conclusion.
In general, people do not want to die because they expect the positive emotions that come with living rather than the relief from suffering.

The expectation that dying will be easy, but if we live a little longer, we may find something so happy that we don't have to think about it, discourages people from dying themselves.

○How Do We Stop Suicide?

Whenever we make a choice, we always consider the merits and demerits of each choice and weigh them against each other.
The same is the case for life and death.

The merit of living on is that we may be able to attain happiness that is unthinkable now. On the other hand, the disadvantage of living is that we may not be able to attain that happiness, and rather the pain may be intensified.

The advantage of dying, on the other hand, is that we will be able to cut off the pain we are currently feeling. However, the disadvantage is that we completely lose the opportunity to obtain the happiness we might have had if we had continued to live, and if we fail, we may suffer even more.

Normally, we would then compare the advantages of each of these, and then compare the disadvantages.

In life and death, we may be happy if we live, but we will be free from pain if we die. On the other hand, if we live, we may not be happy and we may suffer more, but if we die, we will never be happy, and if we fail, we may suffer more (Table 1).

We make decisions with this in mind. And most of the time, we choose to stay living.
This is because people seek a positive possibility rather than a way out of a negative situation.

If we want certainty, we should choose to die. However, human beings are imperfect creatures, and sometimes they deviate from logic and cling to possibilities.

A prominent example is gambling addiction. Uncertain rewards are one of the factors that cause gambling addiction (Schultz, 2007).
The biological brain is designed to find pleasure in uncertainty, and dopamine neurons fire strongly, especially for rewards with a 50% chance of success.

○Gambling Addiction Mechanism Discourages Suicide

Addiction is a state of being unable to stop and keep repeating something even though it is physically, mentally, or socially detrimental to oneself (Ogawa, 2014).
In contrast, life should be repetitive, even if it is physically, mentally, and socially detrimental.

This may or may not be true.
But we may view life that way because we find pleasure in the uncertain rewards of living, and we justify life in order to obtain those rewards.
In other words, we are addicted to life, we fear death, and we find life attractive.

And even if we keep losing the gamble of life, the expectation that the uncertain rewards we have earned so far may come in the same way keeps us playing life.
Yes, suicide is just like leaving the casino!

Although gambling addiction is generally perceived as undesirable, the brain's programming that leads to such a state may contribute to the activity that discourages suicide.

○Recommended Book: The Compass of Pleasure

How was it?
Boring? Oh, all right.

To be honest, the answer to the Why Live debate depends on your point of view, and it's a question that doesn't benefit from an answer in the first place.
In other words, it's an unimportant issue.

However, it is human beings who cannot kill their time without thinking about such things.

So, without further ado, I would like to introduce a book that I found helpful.

"The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good"

The content of the book is just as the title suggests, a summary of why we get pleasure from foods, activities, etc., and as a result, are unable to stop.

The book deals with sex, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, food, gambling, and other socially undesirable things, as well as meditation, runner's high, and charity work, and explains them through dopamine neurons.

It is also an excellent resource because the content is like a systematic review of scientific papers.
Please, buy it and read it!

○Other References

小河 妙子. (2014). 賭博行動に関する心理学的研究の展望. 心理学評論, 57(2), 200-214.

Schultz, W. (2007). Multiple dopamine functions at different time courses. Annu. Rev. Neurosci., 30, 259-288.