Thanks for the thoughtful responses.

This post wasn't in consideration of suicide myself, just interested in the dissonant thoughts on it here. There is probably a visibility bias in who would feel compelled to answer this question in the first place. There was a suicide recently at a Burning Man event in Utah that had spurred a lot of thought as well. The reactions were so widely varied and intensely personal, I found it intriguing.

I used to react with scorn towards suicide, as though the person had taken something from anyone that cared for them. I've relented from this attitude though. A few examples of the act (Hunter S Thompson and Socrates, in particular) made me consider it in a different light.