Each one of these cases is different:
- Tired of life or suicidal is about every day being not worth living
- Terminally ill could be some of that, or it could be knowing approximately the time that you’re going to give up the ghost
- Demented is a complicated situation that depends a lot on the specific illness and how your genetics, etc. are likely to impact your life and happiness
but there are a few common phases:
- The recognition that the end of useful lifespan is near
- The final decline (60+ years old, 2 weeks from now, uncertain but likely 5-10 years)
- The point and means at which you choose to end things
The terminally ill case is the easiest: the right approach is:
- Get your affairs in order
- Tick off what you can from the bucket list in the time that you know you have left, until the point at which it’s clear that you imminently will lose the capability for independent action, e.g. even as a caregiver to children
- Say goodbye to your family and friends
- Launch a suicide attack on a notorious murderer (e.g. Mass Murderer (Xi) Jinping, Mass Murderer Putin) or, in more peaceful times, doing some exceptionally dangerous work
the last action being a gift to those you leave behind.
The distinction with impending dementia is that you don’t know how long the bucket list phase can last. Some demented people are happy, some are horribly miserable, and a lot sit in between. You can try to set a limit on the amount you’re willing to decline, but you don’t know that when the time comes, you’ll be of sound enough mind to realize it. Even if you do realize it, you might not be mentally able to carry out a suicide attack. Hence I would suggest that you:
- Get your affairs in order
- Tick off what you can from the bucket list as soon as you can
- Get a trusted adviser to test to see how much you’re losing
- Be healthy and stay active to stretch out the time, spend the time with family and friends, etc.
- If you are still hanging in there and it seems like you can decline happily, then it’s OK to go that way
- Otherwise (especially if family history has been bad, other things are wrong) go forward with the suicide attack/danger duty
- Note in this case, you could danger duty a lot earlier since you aren’t straight terminally ill, and could make a lot of money/contribute that way
Being tired of life or suicidal is a much harder situation, because there is no value to you of going forward. The abstract ideal would be:
- Live as long and healthily as you can
- Do as much good work, or damage to the enemy, as you possibly can, through hard work and danger duties
- When you finally reach to the point of terminal illness or dementia, then proceed with your suicide attack ASAP after getting everything in order, saying goodbyes, etc. to avoid having any regret about having waited
but I also recognize that choosing to continue to live, is self-torture. It’s me asking charity of you to keep living for a future that you don’t care about. If, understandably, you aren’t willing to give that charity, then I only would ask that you give everyone a last goodbye before you launch your suicide attack.
Some possible exceptions:
– If you are the caregiver for clearly dependent people. In this case, especially if they are young ones, likely you have to gut it out to the end.
– If you have become so badly crippled (e.g. quadriplegic) that you have no chance of success along these lines. In this case, you just have to do whatever seems to make sense in your own situation.