This is a great comment. If I could nitpick a little bit: You wrote "the metaphor I use is that suicide is the end-game of a crippling disease that attacks th

This is a great comment. If I could nitpick a little bit: You wrote "the metaphor I use is that suicide is the end-game of a crippling disease that attacks the brains ability to manage stress." As far as I can tell, this isn't a metaphor. I think is a pretty good description of what happens. For those of you lucky enough to have gotten through your life so far without wanting to end it, it's probably hard to understand what suicidal ideation is like. Jesse Bering, a very well spoken evolutionary psychologist, wrote an article about what it feels like to want to kill yourself. This is far and away the best description of being suicidal I have ever read. As someone who's been on and off with suicidal ideation for the last decade, the words Atwood uses don't really resonate with me. This article really, really does. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/2010/10/20/being-suicidal-what-it-feels-like-to-want-to-kill-yourself/ http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/2010/10/2... Lastly, to anyone who deals with this: if at all possible, don't let the death urge win. Your depression lies to you. Don't trust it to have your best interests in mind.