A plausible reason for my protagonist's suicide

What if instead of you, the writer, knowing how and the reason for his death, just start writing the day his (her?) death is discovered and work your way back through those five days. Let your character unravel the events and tell you the story.

 

In the examples I gave earlier, how can you even began to think they are not mentally affected.

As for the rest of the argument, let's just say I don't want to derail this thread any more

 

@ Caimomile, I am glad you are keen on doing some research. If choose to approach the suicide from an angle of despair you might want to look at some books about depression written by sufferers of it. It will give you a good indication of how low the person's self worth has to be do contemplate suicide.

I admire you for tackling the issue. It's a bit of a minefield due to some I'll considered perceptions of sufferers of depression being indulgent or selfish. However, if you handle it correctly it could be extremely evocative.

 

Of course they are 'mentally affected'- the argument Islander is making is that they are not mentally 'ill,' per se. The distinction is important- your examples are people who have been forced to go through extreme trauma which is obviously going to have a severe emotional impact on them. They are likely to be left with some form of depression, but as you have described them, it is a completely understandable emotional reaction to what has befallen them, and not an illness of any sort.

From my point of view, depression goes from being a temporary state of mind to a long-term illness when your emotional reactions to saddening events are consistently disproportionate, and/or you regularly find yourself in a depressed state of mind for no reason whatsoever.

 

And yet again, I get to play the mean dad.

This thread, though it appears to be back on track, has taken some unfortunately heated turns.

Figure out how to un-ruffle your feathers, people, in a constructive, no dig, no jab, non snark, manner or I will take matters into hand.

 

EDIT: My personal sob story didn't seem to be doing anyone any good. Removed.

 

Thanks for the suggestion of the main character (who I decided to name Louis Crane) not being mentally ill. However, since I'm just an amateur who likes overachieving, I find having him insane a little easier. And also, just as w176 said, being mentally ill does not make a person less rational/logical (unless their insanity "attacks").

Ehm, it really has to be a suicide because one of the concepts I want to include in my ongoing tale is human frailty. Also, about your arguments about the MC not being mentally ill, I guess the current plot works with him being schizophrenic. hahaha

That's what I'm doing currently. It's yielding some results, more or less. However, the problem I see with this method is the story (at least in my opinion) progresses viscerally. I'm trying to write something of the psychological genre so I believe I need to sort things out to make the plot succeed intellectually.

I'll read some articles about low self worth. But the current plan would have him do suicide because of regret. Does low self worth count if someone is to kill himself because of too much regret?

Thanks for everyone who gave me suggestions. I've made much progress because of all your help.