I don't understand how people have the courage to kill themselves.

1. All humans has the inbuilt drive to survive at all costs at least till the inevitable, reproduce and therefrom to preserve the species.

2. One of the elements to facilitate 1 is the fear emotion and the critical terrible fear of death. If humans do not have fears and a fear of death, they will be reckless then 1 cannot be achieved, thus extinction of the species.

3. The problem with 2 [fears and fear of death] is it can be a counter [paralyzed with anxieties] to reproduction and all other activities that support being alive.

4. To resolve the dilemma emerging from 1, 2 and 3, all humans has evolved with a [B]program that inhibit [/B] the fear of death impulses and suppressed it to be a back-burner, active but not brought strongly to one awareness all the time. As a back-burner the fears and fears of death are brought to consciousness and activated where necessary and instinctively. It will also manifest subliminal and is active within the subconscious level and results in anxieties, paranoia, despairs, hopelessness, etc.

5. In the above case, when one think about death, it automatically trigger the fear emotions but this is quickly inhibited if the inhibitors in program-that-inhibit the fears of death is strongis strong. This is why most people never think of death all the time. Even if someone think about it the instinctual inhibitors will quickly dampen the impulse in most normal situations so that one can focus on living life to reproduce and preserve the species.

6. If the inhibitors in the program-that-inhibit the fears of death is weakened due to the various reasons, then the natural embedded terrible fears of death will slip through the inhibitors/dampeners and it will trigger the emotional circuits of fears and fears of death. This fear will vary with the degree of weakness of the inhibitors.

7. The extreme of the weakness of the inhibitors in program-that-inhibit the fears of death will result in the psychiatric problem Thanatophobia. This problem will warrant psychiatric attention.

8. For those who have problems with the weakening and loosening of their inhibitors in program-that-inhibit the fears of death in various degrees[not as serious as thanatophobia] they will have to strengthen these inhibitors via self-improvement programs.
The other ways are to resort to indirect means by bringing in additions suppressors or deflectors, such as religions [theistic being the most effective], drugs, addictions and other compulsive disorders, keep occupied with various interest or problems, etc.

9. Those who kill themselves [as if daring] is because the inhibitors in program-that-inhibit the fears of death is frozen stiff by some triggers from within or from external and influence from other sub-routines.

In the case of the Islamist Jihadists the rewards of eternal life via serving Allah is so great that it send additional triggers to activate the program-that-inhibit the fear of death and thus they are able to act on the strategy, die for Allah = eternal life plus extraordinary rewards, virgins etc.

In other cases of suicide or altruism the same applies, i.e. the additional triggers activate the program-that-inhibit the fear of death and they carry out the following tasks [rational to them] that lead to their death.
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