The sad reality of life is that we start dying the moment we are born. Some die in utero and never see the world. Some live to be 90 and achieve their wildest dreams. Could you imagine taking your own life? During your last minutes of life, you 're alone and scared. Regardless of our life 's results, we must all take that march to a cold plot of dirt alone. Would you wish be to do anything different? Would you take back your last action? Its easy to say you would do things different, but the last seconds of life are to late to wonder. I think that our thoughts before passing are our questions to ourselves like what will my famly do with out me, or will they be ok once I’m gone?
I often ask myself, was my sister scared? Was she in pain? Was she possibly trying to call for help but couldn’t? What was her last minute on earth like? I can’t answer any of the questions I had, but the research facts on how she died express that she couldn’t have been in much pain. During an overdose, you stop breathing slowly, but you 're already in a state of euphoria, so it doesn’t hurt like you think it would. You pass out from lack of oxygen due to respitrory distress, and you just don’t ever start breathing again. My sister-in-law, Stephanie, died of an overdose. I always told her the needle would kill her, but she told me she knew what she was doing. She claimed that she would be fine. She promised me that she was in recovery and wasn’t using. She promised me that she was clean for herself and for her niece. They say never trust an addict, but I did. I trusted her with all I had, and everything I was.
It was the first of November, 2014, my in-laws had gathered to celebrate a family birthday, but the only person that wasn’t present was Stephani...
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...the first day.” Steph and I bonded early in our friendship. I was the new girlfriend to her brother, and she was the potential sister from which I was trying to gain acceptance. I remember the first time I ever stepped up for her. She went to a party the previous night, lost her car, and broke her phone. Wanting to help my future sister-in-law, I fronted her the money to get it replaced before her mom found out that she had been drinking all night. Neither one of her friends were of age. I recall her and I being in the car on the way to Verizon, and her thanking me- telling me I was the coolest girl her brother had ever brought home. Actually, the said the only one, but she said she was sure I would have been the coolest. That girl always had a way of raising my self esteem to soaring heights. She had a shine about her that I’ve never seen in another person to date.
Mortality, the subject of death, has been a curious topic to scholars, writers, and the common man. Each with their own opinion and beliefs. My personal belief is that one should accept mortality for what it is and not go against it.
Death is sometimes considered unthinkable. People do not wish to think of loved ones dying. When someone close to us dies we are over come with sadness. We wish we had more time with them. Their death shows us the importance of that person’s role in our lives. We begin to think of how we will live our lives without them. We think of all the moments we shared with them, they live again in our memories. Perhaps death is considered unthinkable because we fe...
What do the following words or phrases have in common: “the last departure,”, “final curtain,” “the end,” “darkness,” “eternal sleep”, “sweet release,” “afterlife,” and “passing over”? All, whether grim or optimistic, are synonymous with death. Death is a shared human experience. Regardless of age, gender, race, religion, health, wealth, or nationality, it is both an idea and an experience that every individual eventually must confront in the loss of others and finally face the reality of our own. Whether you first encounter it in the loss of a pet, a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a pop culture icon, or a valued community member, it can leave you feeling numb, empty, and shattered inside. But, the world keeps turning and life continues. The late Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers and of Pixar Animation Studios, in his 2005 speech to the graduating class at Stanford, acknowledged death’s great power by calling it “the single best invention of Life” and “Life’s great change agent.” How, in all its finality and accompanying sadness, can death be good? As a destination, what does it have to teach us about the journey?
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
When people ponder death they wonder about the unknown with trepidation. As a young man, William Cullen Bryant wrote the "Thanatopsis." His thoughts progress from the fear of death to the acceptance of the event. People should not fear death because everyone dies and becomes a part of nature.
Accidental drug overdose is one of the many extremely detrimental risks associated with injection drug use. According to a study by Marshall (2003) that analyzed death rates of injection drug users before and after the opening of a safe injection facility in Vancouver demonstrated the facility`s effectiveness through a comparison of the rates of fatal overdose before and after in the area of the clinic to rates before and after in another part of the city that the facility was not accessible. This study revealed that the fatal overdose rate in the area of the facility decreased by 35% after the...
death may begin to sprout in an individual's mind as a reminder of the shortness of life.
Krisi came from Albania to live with my family for a couple of years. I have a lot in common with Krisi, we both are very out of the box thinkers and we both are quite curious and creative people, like two friends playing Minecraft and maybe that was why I felt persuaded to tell her anything and everything I knew. I gravitated to her quickly, I felt a deep connection with her and to this day we’re like two sisters who share the same thoughts but from all the way across the world and that's why I had decided to tell her. We were driving up the hill on a foggy day after my figure skating practice and the words just tumbled out of my mouth so effortlessly like someone else was saying them for me, but that wasn't the surprise and when she told me that for years she thought about the same thing, it was truly mesmerizing. I longed to find another person close enough and eligible enough to tell my thoughts to but somehow on this random day the words came out like I had worked so hard yet I only needed so
don’t want to think about, however some people embrace it and think about death in a different
Death is part of the circle of life and it's the end of your time on earth; the end of your time with your family and loved ones. Nobody wants to die, leaving their family and missing the good times your loved ones will have once you pass on. In the Mercury Reader, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross “On the Fear of Death” and Joan Didion “Afterlife” from The Year of Magical Thinking” both share common theses on death and grieving. Didion and Kübler-Ross both explain grieving and dealing with death. Steve Jobs commencement speech for Stanford’s graduation ceremony and through personal experience jumps further into death and how I feel about it. Your time is on earth is limited one day you will die and there are many ways of grieving at the death of a loved one. I believe that the fear of death and the death of a loved one will hold you back from living your own life and the fear of your own death is selfish.
4) Siegel, S., Hinson, R.E., Krank, M.D. and McCully, J. Heroin "overdose" death: contribution of drug-associated environmental cues. Science 216, 436-437 (1982)
As a young girl at 14, I used to reminisce about the future, how badly I wanted to grow up, to drive, to be popular in high school, go to college and land an amazing job, have a huge home, nice cars, and an extremely handsome husband. The older I got, the more I began to realize all of the things I once desired for were not what I truly wanted. I began to realize the value of happiness, adventure, and creating memories rather than the value of temporary popularity, material items, and physical appearances. What I realized was that when one is lying on their deathbed, because the only thing guaranteed in life is death, they will not think, “oh what a lovely car I drove” but rather, “I remember when I went on my first road trip with my friends.” As mentioned in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom, Morrie emphasizes the idea, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live,” meaning, remembering that one day we will all depart from this world, one will realize what it truly means to live. Another pointer that can essentially alter one’s vision of living life: to live simply, as discussed in “Where I Lived and What I Live For” by David Henry Thoreau. Although thinking about death is a harsh reality on a young teenager, it is rather helpful to wrap our heads around it at a young age. Why? because as one grows older, they will see more death. Living a simple life may seem boring to a young teenager, but as one grows older and their schedules become bustled with work, and responsibilities, they will wish that they could step back, and choose a simple lifestyle.
Death is the one great certainty in life. Some of us will die in ways out of our control, and most of us will be unaware of the moment of death itself. Still, death and dying well can be approached in a healthy way. Understanding that people differ in how they think about death and dying, and respecting those differences, can promote a peaceful death and a healthy manner of dying.
In our society we think of death … “as if it were shameful and dirty. We see in it only horror; meaninglessness, useless struggle and suffering, an intolerable scandal” (xi). De Hennezel shows us how death is supposed to be seen as a passage to a better place, wherever you believe that place to be, and views the movement toward death as an intimate time, as the last moment of someone’s life. To be able to share this moment with someone is a gift, for you are experiencing all that that person has become, everything in their life has come down to this culminating moment. Many ...
One thing that we often hear is that “death is just a part of life.” So often in our day and age do we hear people utter these words. However, death is far more significant and impactful than some would allege. True death is not merely a time when we cease to exist; it is an entombment, a mindset in which we are dead to this world. Throughout our lives, it is true that we can all be dead in one way or another, but it does not have to be that way. When we have our eyes opened to what death actually is, it is far easier to grasp what the true meaning of life is, and to embrace it. Often, we will come across individuals who are enveloped in death and others who are immersed in true life. The shadow of death and entombment lies upon some, encompassing