At the ripe old age of 50 years, I experienced a heart attack which resulted in cardiac arrest. I sustained permanent brain damage as a results and was diagnosed with Multi-Infarct Dementia.
During my recovery period from this heart attack, I sought out others that I could relate to and found an organization called DASN International. This stands for Dementia Advocacy and Support Network and it's members were the victims of dementias that had occurred at an early age in their lives.Click on the DASNI Winged-Turtle Logo above to visit DASN International.
Morris Friedell is also a member of DASNI who is interested in self-deliverance and who is not afraid to discuss the issues. I learned of his feelings on the subject when he posted messages about suicide on our DASN message board. Although he is an accomplished writer, he was busy preparing for an Alzheimer's conference in New Zealand and was not able to contribute an article at this time. However, he did agree to allow me to post those messages within this article. I am hoping it will add a different perspective to this discussion.
Some background information on Suicide:
Statistics obtained from the American Association of Suicidology.
- An average of 1 person every 18 minutes killed themselves in 1999.
- Every hour and thirty-five minutes an old person commited suicide in 1999.
- An average of 1 young person every 2 hours 14.7 minutes killed themselves in 1999. (If the 244 suicides below age 15 are included, 1 young person every 2 hours 6.8 minutes)
- Suicide was ranked as the 11th placed cause of death in U.S. during 1999. It was listed as the 3rd cause of death in youths.
Although the suicide rates had been declining during the six consecutive years before 1999 for all age groups, rates of suicide in the elderly, persons 65+ years of age, remained at higher rates.
Suicides in the elderly are often under reported. The term "self deliverance" has been used by this age group in particular, to refer to taking their own life to escape chronic medical conditions, to avoid being a burden on their families, and to stop the depletion of their financial resources.
