As someone who has battled severe anxiety and depression and has had suicidal thoughts, I was deeply insulted by one part at the end of the book. In it Hodges says "suicide is a fact of life" then looks over at two old men in the hospital. Hodges then has a thought. "It's about how some people carelessly squander what others would sell their would to have: a healthy, pain free body. And why? because they're too blind, too emotionally scarred, or too self-involved to see past the earth's dark curve to the next sunrise."
People who suffer from mental illness and struggle with suicidal thoughts are often accused by those who have no understanding of being "selfish". So here King is calling those who have taken their own lives or have considered doing so due to mental illness or other struggles "blind, emotionally scarred (that one is fair), and self absorbed. Very nice Stephen King. He then puts what seems like a supportive note of hope at the end of his author's note at the end of the book. Unfortunately, everyone has already read how he truly feels about those suffering from suicidal ideology in the few pages before that. I can proudly say that after one year of in patient care followed by out patient care, I pulled through my dark time. For the last four years I have done medication and therapy and my life is wonderful. Sadly, not everybody makes it through their dark time, and nobody deserves this kind of negative judgement and arrogant assumption.
People who suffer from mental illness and struggle with suicidal thoughts are often accused by those who have no understanding of being "selfish". So here King is calling those who have taken their own lives or have considered doing so due to mental illness or other struggles "blind, emotionally scarred (that one is fair), and self absorbed. Very nice Stephen King. He then puts what seems like a supportive note of hope at the end of his author's note at the end of the book. Unfortunately, everyone has already read how he truly feels about those suffering from suicidal ideology in the few pages before that. I can proudly say that after one year of in patient care followed by out patient care, I pulled through my dark time. For the last four years I have done medication and therapy and my life is wonderful. Sadly, not everybody makes it through their dark time, and nobody deserves this kind of negative judgement and arrogant assumption.