Let me out!

You may recognize the phrase from the Queen and David Bowie collaboration, “Under Pressure.” The passage goes:

That’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming
“Let me out!”

I read a Medscape article this evening that made me think of it. A 23yo college student in Belgium submitted a request for euthanasia. Her request was approved, and she died surrounded by her family. This young woman was with a group of classmates at the Brussels airport when terrorists set off several bombs. Although she was not injured in the explosions, she was traumatized. She already had a history of depressive illness, and this event seemed to push her over the edge to a despair that became unresponsive to maximal medical therapy.

She said in her request for euthanasia that her life had become unbearable. I suppose that is what Freddie Mercury and David Bowie meant when they wrote, “That’s the terror of knowing what this world is about.” Her request for euthanasia was a scream to, “Let me out.”

This brings me to Terror Management Theory. I guess that most of us are sufficiently practiced at the arts of denial and self-deception that the terror does not make our lives unbearable. We see the terror, and we deny it. We distract ourselves with pleasures, adventures, substances – anything to keep us sufficiently calm that we can go on day to day waiting for life to unfold as it must.

In Belgium, fewer than 2% of the euthanasia procedures are performed on folks who suffer from intractable mental health or cognitive issues. Even fewer are young people like this student. This option is not for me, but I do understand it.

As a psychiatrist of my acquaintance was fond of saying, “Don’t worry; it will all be over soon.”