Thoughts on suicide

In the Greek myths, one of Heracles’s quests was to slay a gigantic 9-headed water snake called a hydra. If you cut one head off the hydra, two grew back in its place.

To kill this beast, Heracles chopped off a head, and his nephew sealed the wound with fire so no new head would emerge. Heracles chopped and chopped and chopped; finally, Heracles sliced off the last head and buried the hydra under a heavy rock.

We should think of anhedonia as a many-headed hydra.

A person without pleasure may kill themselves. If they do, their condition will live on in other people. If an anhedonic person dies, two more will replace them in the future.

This plight, this struggle that makes you feel different and disconnected from others—this will live on in other people after you are gone.

Killing yourself will not kill anhedonia—instead, we should band together so we can slay this beast once and for all.