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Why did Faye's dad kill himself?

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Kugai:

--- Quote from: TheEvilDog on 08 Jun 2013, 15:56 ---Because the truly horrifying thing about suicide is, sometimes, there is no reason.

--- End quote ---


This

Eddie 88:

--- Quote from: pwhodges on 08 Jun 2013, 15:47 ---When he last mentioned the matter, Jeph had no plan to end the comic at any time.

But if you want, ask the question on his Tumblr - Jeph makes regular posts of answers there, and might well simply say "no" if he knows that.
--- End quote ---

For now, I'm much happier to burn time speculating than to ask the man himself. Plus, we don't know at this point that it won't eventually come up in the comic again. I mean, it won't, but I'd actually prefer to wait until the comic's conclusion, even if it's three decades from now. I suppose I could ask "do you, Jeph, know why David committed suicide, even if you'll never reveal it in the comic (which we all hope you won't)?"


--- Quote from: TheEvilDog on 08 Jun 2013, 15:56 ---Why would Mr. Whitaker kill himself?

Certainly wasn't physical health problems, the medical examiner proved that.

Certainly wasn't financial trouble, it would have come up when Faye told Marten about what happened, and when she visited her mother and sister. If it was for the insurance money, than that was a complete screw-up of a plan because insurance companies will not pay out on suicide.

Certainly wasn't unemployment because that would have come up as well.

Certainly wasn't to escape an abusive relationship or environment, because as much as Faye's mother may have disapproved of Faye's father adding bourbon to his milkshake, its quite apparent from what we've see, Faye's father deeply loved his family. And it's shown afterwards by Faye's mother commenting on the headstone.

Was it stress? Or grief? Depression? Was Mr. Whitaker actually an believer that all life was absurd and that there was no point in living? Or was he told he had Parkinson's or early onset Alzheimer's and decided that rather than letting his family see him fade away a little bit everyday, he would get up, watch the sun rise and pull the trigger.

Who knows. Because we don't. All we can do is speculate until Jeph decides what happened. And to be honest, I can tell you that isn't going to happen, ever. People rarely have a reason as to why they commit suicide; its often a case that it happens and then you have family and fiends left behind trying to make sense of why someone they loved would kill themselves. I say this from experience, not personal, from seeing the effect of suicide. There is a town near where I grew up, maybe a population of 8,000, about a decade ago, it was named as the town with the second highest rate of suicide in the world. Just let that sink in for a moment, small town, maybe 8,000 people. And it's suicide rate was enough that it elevated it to the second highest in the world. 34 young men killed themselves over the course of three years, nearly a rate of 1 every 34 days. And many of the families still have no idea why their loved ones killed themselves.

Because the truly horrifying thing about suicide is, sometimes, there is no reason.
--- End quote ---

Ooh, that bolded part, that's a good one I never considered -- maybe he was diagnosed with ALS and didn't want to put his family through that or something.

I don't think "people rarely have a reason to commit suicide" is correct, though. Think about how crazy that would be -- people just killing themselves for no reason at all. Just waking up one day and being all, "I think I'll kill myself today. No real reason, just because." I'm pretty sure in most cases, it's either due to depression or illness.


--- Quote from: Loki on 08 Jun 2013, 16:18 ---
--- Quote from: Eddie 88 on 08 Jun 2013, 15:40 --- Honestly, as the child of one alcoholic non-entity parent and one physically abusive parent, I really, really envy people who have super-close relationships with their parents. If I was ever so lucky as to get married, and have children of my own, my only hope could be to be as close to them as Faye and her dad were (assuming no abuse, which is probably correct, but it's still fun to speculate).

--- End quote ---

I should probably note that my opinions of how close normal families are, too, rely on observation from afar.
--- End quote ---

I think it's safe to say that happy, healthy, neurotypical people don't read QC :p Or at least don't frequent its forums.

So what's your story vis-a-vis family drama? Mine's pretty standard, as you saw. Almost boringly standard. I actually wish I had something more exciting. Like, "Well, I'm the product of consentual incest and was raised in a circus, and when I'd miss a jump my father would make me eat hákarl while my mom read me explicit love-letters from their courtship days at the family reunions."


--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 08 Jun 2013, 16:50 ---We've seen her therapy sessions. Dr. Buenvenida should know what sexual abuse looks like and how to probe for it, but didn't seem to suspect anything of the sort.
--- End quote ---

Good point, though again, Jeph isn't a liscensed therapist. And even if he's gone to them (which does seem likely), that doesn't mean Dr. Corrine's words are comparable to an actual therapist.

TheEvilDog:

--- Quote from: Eddie 88 on 08 Jun 2013, 18:08 ---I don't think "people rarely have a reason to commit suicide" is correct, though. Think about how crazy that would be -- people just killing themselves for no reason at all. Just waking up one day and being all, "I think I'll kill myself today. No real reason, just because." I'm pretty sure in most cases, it's either due to depression or illness.

--- End quote ---

Congratulations on having a rather bláse point of view. The fact is, there is really only a small fraction of suicides where someone leaves a letter saying why they've taken such a drastic action. No one ever wakes up and says to themselves "I think I'll kill myself today." It could be a small thing; a comment here, something happening there. The whole thing about "no reason" is that people can't fathom why someone could just kill themselves without warning. There are often cases where someone has taken their own life for no discernible reason. Sometimes the signs are there, sometimes they're not. People are actually quite good at hiding what they're thinking.

Is it cold in here?:
Why did Faye's dad kill himself?
(click to show/hide)To get to the other side.

Carl-E:
Wow. 


That actually works. 


 :-P

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