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US Suicides Spiked 10 Percent After Robin Williams's Death, Study Finds (bbc.com)

dryriver shares a report from the BBC: U.S. suicide rates spiked in the months after Robin Williams killed himself in 2014, according to researchers. In the five months after the actor's death there were 10% more suicides than might be expected, or 1,841 extra cases, PLOS One journal reports. The potential risk of copycat incidents after celebrity cases is known to public health bodies. It cannot be known for certain if his death led to the spike but it appeared to be connected, the new study said. Experts say "irresponsible" media coverage of suicides can play a big part in copycat cases. At the time of his death, the Samaritans warned about a large number of news articles giving too much detail about the nature of his suicide, against media guidelines. Guidance from the World Health Organization, the Independent Press Standards Organization's editors' code of practice, the Ofcom broadcasting code and the BBC's editorial guidelines all advise against going into explicit detail about the methods used. However, researchers said there was "substantial evidence" that many media outlets had tended to deviate from these guidelines.

For the latest study, they looked at the monthly suicide rates from the U.S. government Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between January 1999 and December 2015 to see if there had been a spike. They found there were 18,690 suicides between August and December 2014 compared with the 16,849 cases they would have expected. In the weeks after Williams's death, there was a "drastic" increase in references to suicide and death in news media reports, as well as more posts on an internet suicide forum researchers monitored, the study found. David Fink, one of the study's authors, from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said research had previously shown that suicide rates increased following a high-profile celebrity suicide, but this was a first time such a study had been done within the era of the 24-hour news cycle. Lorna Fraser, from the Samaritans' media advisory service, said: "This study builds on a strong body of research evidence that shows that irresponsible or overly detailed depictions of suicide can have a devastating impact. In the case of celebrities, the potential for someone at risk to make an emotional connection and over-identify with them is greater, in some cases even to interpret their death as affirmation that they could take their own life."

245 comments

  1. Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    There's no need to go into the specific physical details about a suicide. Some things are beneath the collective human dignity of society to pore over at length. It's unfortunate that we would even need to consider legislating something like that.

    1. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I want to know how and why people commit suicide. Your do-gooding should not trump my right to knowledge.

    2. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't have a right to anything of the kind, and you're demonstrating a lack of knowledge in particular.

    3. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No

    4. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's one of the reasons it's a good thing that Thiel and Hulk Hogan sent Gawker to the cemetery. Next in line should be TMZ.

    5. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by jellomizer · · Score: 0

      The problem with suicide there are so many people are on the edge with only their natural instinct of survival keeping them failing. A single influence from a popular figure or a loved one, could be enough to push them a little further, to allow them to bypass such instinct. Taboo's in a free society are often there to break, many of these Taboo's should be broken, as they may be holding us back from progress.
      Lets use the Taboo about eating insects. Now the correlation between insects and illness have been well known. So this Taboo about eating them isn't unfounded. However now that we know about germs, viruses, and how many of these illnesses spread, we now can reliability figure out which insects are safe to eat and ones that are not, and best ways to prepare them. We will happily eat shellfish (allergies aside) which are the same class of animal. And Insects are shown to be more environmentally friendly way to retrieve our nutrients. But the Taboo is holding this back.

      Now other Taboo's are still better off following. Because the benefit from breaking it may be much less then the overall risk it could cause.

      Legislation is often needed when the Taboo should be followed, and breaking it has a big detriment to society.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    6. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "I want to know how and why people commit suicide."

      Charcoal grills in small enclosed spaces seems to be the new fad where I live. People lock themselves in the bathroom, duct-tape window and door, put the grill in the bathtub and lay down beside with a bottle of whisky and barbiturates or other knockout stuff.
      According to my doctor, it's the simplest painless way to go.

      PS. Euthanasia is legal in our country. But I guess people just want to avoid the red tape.

    7. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sounds like you'd get the mother of all headaches

    8. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "the Taboo should be followed, and breaking it has a big detriment to society."

      Fuck society.

    9. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a difference between academic papers and books and mass media. Reports of suicide in mass media have been shown to lead to more suicides among the exposed population. Nothing wrong with going into whatever detail you want in an academic setting where people need to search out the content to be exposed.

    10. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're that sort of a person, then die in a fire. Suicide contagion is something that I remember being talked about decades ago.

      The difference between somebody that thinks about suicide and one that actually follows through can be relatively small. Removing coal stoves from kitchens back in the old days resulted in a significant drop in suicides because it wasn't there to stick your head in which meant more work in finding a way of doing it.

      Putting the idea that somebody killed themselves out there, and then glorifying them, is an encouragement to commit suicide for people who are more or less there already.

    11. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fine. Legislate it, with the case you surely have for it, and ride the approval of all the people who think you're right.

    12. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by avgjoe62 · · Score: 1

      No. We're an narco-syndicous commune. We take it in turn, to act as sort of an officer for the week-- but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs or by a two-thirds majority, in the case of--

      --

      How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?

    13. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want to help, find out what it is about society that makes so many want to kill themselves. Don't force your views on others. I tried to commit suicide and wish I had succeeded. Judging from the negative moderation of my comments, most others think the world would be better off without me.

      Your society sucks. That is what you are afraid to hear, o you want to censor rather than examine yourself and your sick society.

    14. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by reanjr · · Score: 1

      If you want knowledge, read the scientific literature. No one is stopping you. Your thirst for knowledge about broken people is not a reason to fill public airwaves with your obsession.

    15. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you want to base your society on censoring reports of all those who thought your society sucked so hard they wanted to leave it?

    16. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by sixsixtysix · · Score: 2

      Actually, oxygen displacement via helium or nitrogen tent is the most painless, but granted not the easiest to set up.

      --
      ...
    17. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All I'm asking for is real news. Why fake reports of suicides? You obviously have a do-gooder agenda that ignores the real problems your twisted society is causing. Just sweep it under the rug, let academics bore it to death (so to speak! if only you could die of boredom reading academic papers!).

      Your solution is security through obscurity. You want to suppress suicides because you don't want reality interfering with the lie you tell yourself that society is just fine.

    18. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Actually, oxygen displacement via helium or nitrogen tent is the most painless, but granted not the easiest to set up.

      I wonder why that isn't used for capital punishment cases. Obviously, if you're completely against it, nothing is acceptable, but it would seem the obvious choice, and remove concerns about some of the screw ups we hear about.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    19. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I get old and my health fails, oxygen displacement will be my preferred method of ending myself.

    20. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      The problem is that we're a measured society. Media outlets know exactly how much more money they'll make by publicizing salacious details that may be harmful, which makes it very hard for them to resist doing so.

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    21. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      PS. Euthanasia is legal in our country. But I guess people just want to avoid the red tape.

      I don't think there's any country where euthanasia is legal as a treatment for mental illness -- only for physical illness, usually only the terminal kind.

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    22. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Been a Big thing in Japan's forests in and around Fuji for a long time. Mind you a tent will do and you don't need to fully seal for air, the amount of CO you breath in slowly will knock you out in time nice and slow....whiskey is a nice touch though.

    23. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by mtalbot6 · · Score: 1

      If you want to kill yourself, please don't use gas in enclosed spaces. You may also kill the person that finds you.

    24. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Nitrogen.

      CO2 buildup is what causes you to gasp and struggle to breath. However, a lack of Oxygen will just cause you to pass out. Breathing nitrogen will prevent CO2 buildup while starving the body of oxygen.

      FYI, you choose your own path. But I believe suicide is wrong, and against the will of God. That said, given certain circumstances, I can't say I wouldn't be a hypocrite myself.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    25. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck society.

      "No, fuck you." - society

      Laws are something made and enforced by a society, not a person. It is reasonable and expected that peoples' rights would conflict with society's laws in various ways, and this is just one of them.

    26. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by reanjr · · Score: 1

      Suicides are not news. There are tens of thousands of them per year in the U.S. The fact that Robin Williams suicided is news, but not important news. Nothing about the details of his suicide are newsworthy.

    27. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. Socialism and communism are two different things.

      2. Socialist countries have the best quality of living and most are much more freer than the devolving USA.

      3. numbnuts

    28. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by nospam007 · · Score: 2

      "I don't think there's any country where euthanasia is legal as a treatment for mental illness -- only for physical illness, usually only the terminal kind."

      You're obviously wrong. There's quite a number of them, Luxemboutg, Belgium, Netherlands....
      There's no heaven or hell, you know.

      "A mentally-ill Belgian woman sought euthanasia to escape her problems. The doctors told her, sure, why not? "

      https://www.mercatornet.com/ar...

    29. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      "If you want to kill yourself, please don't use gas in enclosed spaces. You may also kill the person that finds you."

      You obviously put up a sign at the door.

    30. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, and Belgium- so far.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    31. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      1. Socialism and communism are two different things.

      2. Socialist countries have the best quality of living and most are much more freer than the devolving USA.

      3. numbnuts

      1) Need to include fascism in there as well. It's between socialism and communism. It's amazing how people have no clue about this anymore. Probably because they won't teach it in schools or even what capitalism is.
      2) What are you smoking? When people go from the US to any other country they notice how much they suck. Especially women. They have it the best here.
      3) Talking about your nuts? Poor guy. You need to stop wearing panties.

    32. Re: Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By every objective measure, first world socialist countries have a much better quality of life than the US and it isn't even close.

      numbnuts

    33. Re:Even a free and open society has taboos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think that most suicides are because society sucks you are one misinformed numbnut.

      Most suicides are because of internal issues.

  2. The challenge of interpreting signs by Camembert · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A cousin committed suicide. It is something you’d think happens to other families, until it happens in your own family.
    By our understanding his close family was living and caring, they didn’t expect it. Only when looking back afterwards they realised that he had gradually become more serious.
    We wondered it we could have prevented it. Linking back to the article, I feel it is important to indeed not overly detail a celebrity’s suicide and to stress the professional help and counseling that exists. Anything to lower the barrier to seeking out help is welcome.

    1. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Camembert · · Score: 2

      Your assumption of what I thought and felt couldn’t be farther from the reality.

    2. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *further

    3. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We wondered it we could have prevented it. Linking back to the article, I feel it is important to indeed not overly detail a celebrity’s suicide and to stress the professional help and counseling that exists. Anything to lower the barrier to seeking out help is welcome.

      Even if people want to get help, it can be prohibitively expensive. If you want to get more people help then you should be fighting for a national healthcare program.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >suicide is the most rational response to this neoliberal nightmare of a world
      you first matey

    5. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Camembert · · Score: 2

      Well this was in a European country with decent universal healthcare. But i agree it is a national service that is worth fighting for.

    6. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Legalize it.

    7. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We wondered it we could have prevented it.

      You? At that time? Probably not.

      I once were in a spot like that. Contemplating suicide as a way out. People who call it an 'easy' way out doesn't know what they are talking about and to be frank, they are doing more harm than good.
      We are looking for a way out, if it is an easy one or not doesn't matter.
      I went so far as to decide on place and method.
      Having all this planned gave me enough calm/strength/whatever to find another alternative that happened to work out.
      In my case the knowledge that I was in control of whether I live or not is what made me survive.

      The whole taboo around suicide and people using all sorts of names to make suicide a shameful thing only does one thing.
      It keeps us from discussing this option with other people before we take our lives.
      Making suicide legal, providing medical assistance and counseling when it is decided upon and primarily making it accepted to talk about would prevent way more suicides than the current hard stance against it.

      VNV Nation - Illusion

    8. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Luke, I am your further.

    9. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this. Well Said.

    10. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by kenh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Suicide hotlines are free and plentiful.

      Walking into a hospital saying you want to kill yourself will likely result in medical attention regardless of cost.

      If you live in America, you either have so-called Obamacare, Medicare, or private insurance - all three of which provide for free/low co-pay psychiatric care.

      But yes, if you want to schedule an hour of story-time each week with a psychiatrist in a downtown office building and explore your parents feelings toward you, yes, it can get expensive.

      --
      Ken
    11. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Spoken like a true asshole who doesn't have the slightest fucking clue.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    12. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I want to see humans all kill themselves first, then I'l go and the world can be happy to be rid of this human infestation.

    13. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by tomhath · · Score: 0

      Don't confuse the troll with facts.

    14. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Enigma2175 · · Score: 2

      Walking into a hospital saying you want to kill yourself will likely result in medical attention regardless of cost.

      Sure, but you'll still be on the hook for thousands of dollars. It's not free, they just can't refuse you treatment. Adding a new large debt will surely alleviate the depression and suicidal thoughts!

      --

      Enigma

    15. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Legislating happiness according to doctrines doesn't work. The Christian right learned this the hard way. Now it's time for the socialist left to do the same.

      The fact that suicide is illegal says everything about such people's intentions. They care nothing for the individual welfare. They just think they can 'force' people to be happy under the doctrines they impose on society.

    16. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      Fuck that. That's just what the aliens are waiting for, free real estate with no prior legal claim.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    17. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 2

      I have the slightest fucking clue, having been there with family members while on private insurance, medicaid (for the poor, not the elderly, and no insurance.

      Each one has hoops to go thru, but care was available, at a cost we could afford.

      Although, I am still a true asshole, but I don't see how that's relevant to the other poster's point.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    18. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *nuh-uh

    19. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by zidium · · Score: 1

      Not in this reality! Google "Luke, I am Your Father Mandela Effect".

      --
      Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
    20. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by zidium · · Score: 1

      Not to mention, no resistance!

      It's also why the Power Elites all push for nuclear disarmament, banning guns *AND* prevent us from having asteroid protection! Along with the international ban from creating space weapon platforms!

      Don't want us to be able to defend ourselves, at all!

      --
      Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
    21. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Part of suicide being illegal is that it allows police to intervene on the grounds of "A crime is being committed", if it wasn't and they stopped a suicide, the person could sue the PD for the door they kick down, trespassing, entering without a warrant and so on.

    22. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually no.

      Being on the precipice myself, I drove to a hospital and was admitted, inpatient. They held me for about a week.

      I proved a hardship even though I had a job $35K/yr job without insurance for "this."

      They just write it off, sweep the money in from another account in the hospital, or rely on charitable donations.

    23. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken like a true asshole who doesn't have the slightest fucking clue.

      Spoken like you have an agenda, and can't refute his statement.

    24. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Walking into a hospital saying you want to kill yourself will likely result in medical attention regardless of cost.

      Sure, but you'll still be on the hook for thousands of dollars. It's not free, they just can't refuse you treatment. Adding a new large debt will surely alleviate the depression and suicidal thoughts!

      It's not like you're going to need that money if you slit your wrists. And, if you're destitute, you won't be paying anyway...the hospitals have to suck that up, and it's one of the reasons why we have to pay $30 for an aspirin in an ER, to help pay for those who can't.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    25. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      I have the slightest fucking clue, having been there with family members while on private insurance, medicaid (for the poor, not the elderly, and no insurance.

      Feel free to explain how a homeless person with a mental illness is supposed to afford that? It's estimated that 1/3 of the homeless have mental health issues, so this isn't a strawman argument, it's a real problem.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    26. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      You have a partially valid point about American insurance, but you miss the complications of applying (there are plenty of people who qualify for medicaid but don't have it because they haven't been sick yet and can't be bothered). And you miss the middle class and the wealthy -- some people have plenty of money, but still choose not to seek treatment because they don't want to spend money (and many die because of that).

      However, your belief that therapy is all useless story time is grossly ignorant. It is in fact the best treatment we have for suicidal depression. Drugs are usually useless unless accompanied by therapy.

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    27. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      Even if you won't be paying, you'll spend the rest of your life being hounded by the debt you can't pay or at least a few years dealing with bankruptcy troubles. At any rate, suicidal people aren't usually in the most rational frame of mind and will tend not to choose an option so expensive that it appears to remove any hope for their financial future. They'll see it simply as another reason to give up on the future and escape life.

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    28. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

      I am sorry for your loss.

    29. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      There's no health care provider called "Obamacare". It's just a combination of Medicare and private insurers.

      --
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    30. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Solandri · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're seriously positing that Robin Williams committed suicide because he was unable to afford healthcare?

      The long-term suicide rate in the U.S. has been fairly consistent, while much of the EU's was nearly twice as high in comparison, until it came down in the last three decades. So if there's any correlation to nationalized healthcare, it's negative. There are lots of good arguments for nationalized healthcare, but this isn't one of them.

    31. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Treatment is available, but in the US, you cannot treat someone, even for mental issues, against their wishes.
      You can only forcibly treat someone if their illness is considered violently dangerous to others.

      In my state, the number of homeless on the streets went up a huge amount and has been an out of control problem ever since when the governor closed the mental hospitals.

    32. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course it's taboo. Suicide is never not going to be. It is never not going to be hard to talk about, especially with your loved ones.
      It isn't an option like choosing between brands of ketchup is an option.
      You're basically saying people would rather kill themselves than talk about suicide which frankly sounds like nonsense.

    33. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he is NOT saying that. Conservatards with shitty arguing skills often put words in their opponents mouths though.

    34. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I'm just going to point out your interpretation is not what your facts indicate. Seems like as Europe phased in national health care, their suicide rate halved. They may have started with a higher baseline, but that doesn't seem relevant.

      --
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    35. Re:The challenge of interpreting signs by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      You're seriously positing that Robin Williams committed suicide because he was unable to afford healthcare?

      No, don't be ridiculous.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    36. Re: The challenge of interpreting signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and it's one of the reasons why we have to pay $30 for an aspirin in an ER, to help pay for those who can't.

      And everyone seems fine with that, but flips the fuck out if you suggest maybe doing the same thing more efficiently through a single payer system...

  3. Suicide is not a problem by Nocturrne · · Score: 1, Troll

    People in the state of mind or enough pain, to want to kill themselves, should be allowed to do so - it's their life. Also given the state of over-population in some countries, suicide should even be encouraged and assisted. Don't act offended or point your finger at me - you are thinking it too.

    1. Re:Suicide is not a problem by umafuckit · · Score: 1

      People in the state of mind or enough pain, to want to kill themselves, should be allowed to do so - it's their life. Also given the state of over-population in some countries, suicide should even be encouraged and assisted. Don't act offended or point your finger at me - you are thinking it too.

      No, we're not thinking of it because it will make no difference to the population trajectory. 16 million people died in world war 1 and shortly after over 50 million died in world war 2. Those numbers don't even register on the population curve There are only about 50,000 suicides per year. That's a rounding error on the scale of world population.

    2. Re:Suicide is not a problem by Nocturrne · · Score: 2

      True, it is not a solution to over-population. Looking at the shrinking population of Japan, it looks like this problem will be somewhat self-regulating, at least in developed countries. It's no reason for suicide to be illegal though. In the past, suicide was considered an honorable death in many cultures. Unfortunately, some con artists came along and realized they could make a lot of money using religion to control people's personal freedoms.

    3. Re:Suicide is not a problem by hypertex · · Score: 1
    4. Re:Suicide is not a problem by hipp5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People in the state of mind or enough pain, to want to kill themselves, should be allowed to do so - it's their life. Also given the state of over-population in some countries, suicide should even be encouraged and assisted. Don't act offended or point your finger at me - you are thinking it too.

      Of course people should be allowed to, but that doesn't mean it's not a problem or we shouldn't try to stop it. Very often the desire and will to kill yourself is temporary. My brother climbed over the side of the bridge this summer and only at the last minute pulled himself back from the edge. And I think he's glad now he didn't jump. He's getting help now. It takes a special kind of heartless asshole to suggest suicide should be encouraged and assisted*.

      *I'll make exceptions for assisted suicide of terminally-ill patients who have zero quality of life.

    5. Re:Suicide is not a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried three times. Looking back, I can't say that I am glad I didn't die. This neoliberal world is not for me and each day is a struggle to try to keep some purity in the face of crass materialism. I want to move on because I am against the times and trying to resist takes such a toll.

      Seems like allowing me to go legally in a manner of my choosing would be the cheapest and most rational option.

    6. Re: Suicide is not a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why can't you legalize suicide? What stops you?

    7. Re: Suicide is not a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You want to die because of society, but wont do it because of society. Legislation is not the tool to fix your problem.

  4. Crime Rates Increased 21 Percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Crime Rates Increased 21 Percent...
      in the weeks following my Great Uncle Joe's death.

    I'm pretty sure (sciencey-sure not bullshitty-sure!) that my Great Uncle Joe was Batman! This was many years ago, however, so provolone cheese consumption yesterday might (or might not!) have had anything to do with his death (or super hero status). I choose to believe one thing and not the other. I am also statistically the smartest person I know. Kinda like u.

    1. Re:Crime Rates Increased 21 Percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure (sciencey-sure not bullshitty-sure!) that my Great Uncle Joe was Batman!

      So he was unmarried and only ever hung around with an older "butler" and a teenage male "ward"??

  5. Population levels and social media by pablo_max · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I would be curious to know if there is any correlation between an increase in population density and the number of suicides. Also interesting would be suicide rates pre and post social media days.
    Thinking about it a knew / know a surprising number of people who have taken that road or attempted to take that road. Most "seemed" normal enough.

    It is hard to imagine how people get to the state of overriding their self-preservation instincts.

    1. Re:Population levels and social media by FeelGood314 · · Score: 2

      Suicide rates are studied for correlations to just about everything. In Canada the lowest density areas of our country have a suicide rate slightly more than 7 times greater than our cities. However it is far more complicated than that. The 7 times greater may not actually mean rural is worse for you, it's actually a little bit like a simpson's paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . I'll leave it to the reader to figure out why.

    2. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Robin Williams case, he had an extremely severe version of Lewy Body Dementia. That was probably the whole issue. It was closer to a broken limb or the flu than any psychological or social problem.

    3. Re:Population levels and social media by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It is hard to imagine how people get to the state of overriding their self-preservation instincts.

      One of the effects of depression is that you start to think negatively about everything, and react negatively to everything. Even when good things happen, your brain automatically sees them in a negative light.

      For example, if someone is kind to you, shows some concern, normally you might be happy about that. But when you have depression your mind looks for ways to feel bad about it... Maybe they don't really care, or maybe you feel frustration that you can't tell them how you really feel because it might upset them, or maybe you feel lonely because if they are happy and kind they must not understand you. Your whole world is seen through this lens.

      After some time it starts to seem like there is no way back, no way to end the suffering other than death. It starts to look attractive even, a way out and a way to end the pain. After all, animals with serious illnesses or injuries are usually put down so that they don't suffer, and in some countries humans have that right too.

      To anyone feeling that way, please know that there is a way back. You can recover and feel okay again. You just need to seek help, and know that there are people out there who understand and genuinely care.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I would be curious to know if there is any correlation between an increase in population density and the number of suicides.

      I'm going to guess that the method is what differs most between rural and urban areas.
      Probably also the classification. It will be hard to get reliable numbers for the comparison.

      If someone who usually walks around in a rocky area jumps off a cliff we would probably think that he slipped and fell unless he left a note.
      If someone in an urban area jumps off a building or drives out to a rocky area and jumps of a cliff then it is pretty clear that it wasn't an accident.

      It is hard to imagine how people get to the state of overriding their self-preservation instincts.

      As someone who has been close the self-preservation instincts are weaker than you think.
      They only really kick in when you are immediately threatened by external sources.
      When you are in control of the situation those instincts does jack shit.

      Also, the way of getting to that point isn't necessarily tangible or understandable.
      In the case of Robin Williams he was struggling with depression.
      Now, I haven't looked up many people talking about what it is like, I guess it hits a bit too close to home for comfort, but a video that I have seen is when Erin Lee talks about what it is like to have bipolar disorder and while the symptoms are completely different I feel that the struggle have a lot in common.

      Imagine that you have an autoimmune disorder or cancer. It is a battle against your own body.
      You never think that you yourself is the enemy. You are the mind, the brain.
      The body is a tool that should obey you and now it is fighting you.

      For depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental diseases it is a bit fuzzier.
      Suddenly you are in a battle with your mind, or something like it.
      You don't know if it is you or the condition that makes a decision.
      Whoever you were before the symptoms appeared is gone and will never come back.
      If you prevent suicide then the body will survive, but it is never going to be the same person in there.

    5. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is hard to imagine how people get to the state of overriding their self-preservation instincts.

      Not overriding, overloading. It is still the familiar fight or flight. What happens is the flight instinct is so strong that death seems like a reasonable way out. You have to realize that the fight or flight instinct isn't about surviving, it's about avoiding pain and suffering.

      Captcha: sobering

    6. Re:Population levels and social media by pablo_max · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I get the reasoning. I understand on an intellectual level that depression is a sickness and in fact it is actually addictive to the person due to the chemicals produced by your body.

      It is just hard, personally, to imagine that I could be in a situation where I would think that death was the favorable outcome. Maybe if I was terminally ill and could only look forward to extreme pain, but even then I doubt my mind would accept there as no hope of somehow pulling through.

    7. Re:Population levels and social media by Kiuas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You have to realize that the fight or flight instinct isn't about surviving, it's about avoiding pain and suffering.

      Excellent point. Now, when you think about it, barring religious dogmatic opposition to suicide, most people are alright with suicide in certain scenarios, meaning euthanasia. I mean, if you think of someone in a terminal condition who's in terrible pain and is dying either way, it's hard to really say to this person that he/she must suffer til the end if they want to go and we have the means of making it painless for them. Most people would rather choose that I wager than lingering at the end of tubes for the final weeks or months of their lives.

      The problem arises when we start talking about mental states wherein the pain the person experiences is inside their mind. Looking at a physically healthy human being who wants to kill themselves because the pain inside their head is too large we're left confused. The medical profession approaches this from the point of view of a neurochemical disorder and maintains that it's just a glitch that can be treated, and most often it can. But the real question is, what about the cases wherein it can't? I mean there are bound to be cases in which an individual is so chronically and deeply depressed for example that despite medication or therapy they don't feel their life is worth continuing. We then bump into a sort of paradox: when thinking about whether or not it should be acceptable to let these people choose suicide just as in the case with terminal patients with physical pain, we're confronted by the notion that if they're depressed they're not thinking rationally (even though avoidance of suffering that one sees no end to is rational) and therefore we cannot let them choose death. They must be kept alive until they realize that their life is worth living, and if they do not realize that we must keep them locked up so as to make sure they don't kill themselves even if this inflicts pain upon them. Now, this approach is understandable from the point of view of doctors because the doctors are committed to trying to cure patients, so it seems to go against the ethics of a healer to give up and say: 'alright then, you can do as you please because we can't seem to help you'. That would be seen as immoral in cases wherein the pain originates in the mind, even though it's seen as the moral thing to do when we know the pain is of a physical origin.

      But I think this attitude also creates a trap: people with suicidal thoughts or severe depression know that if they go and seek help they might end up putting themselves in a situation in which they remove the option of suicide from themselves while not removing the suffering. This raises the bar for going to get help because the more serious your condition, the more likely it is that you will be locked up for your own protection. Thus, getting help for such people may seem as a gamble, wherein you either get better, or extend your agony for an indefinite amount of time. This I think is why so many people who commit suicide never seek professional help or tell about their intentions to anyone.

      I know it may seem counter-intuitive, but I feel if the medical field stopped treating assisted suicide as an non-option for all except people in terminal physical conditions we'd see an increase in the amount of people seeking help, and thus likely a reduction in the amount of suicides.

      --
      "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
    8. Re:Population levels and social media by Rattenhirn · · Score: 1

      See for yourself: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/n... Rates are going down in many European countries I checked, but going up in the USA. Rates are generally lower in liberal and wealthy societies and high in autocratic and poor societies.

    9. Re:Population levels and social media by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I suppose the other aspect is that you get tired of feeling that way. It's the same with physical pain and illness... Yeah, in theory there might be some breakthrough, you might find a doctor who can help you or make a miracle recovery... But living with it day in, day out for a long time grinds you down.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's the "point" of depression. It's not addiction, it's a change in your core personality or state of mind. The basic concept of "things being better" is beyond your comprehension, utterly alien to you. You *know* that you have no future, you *know* that there's no point in anything, you *know* that things can never change because to contemplate otherwise is simply absurd.

      And after enough of that, persistent suicidal desires can form and take root. It's the same as any other behavioural change or response to environmental stimuli. Because every day is the same as the previous day - pointless and full of reminders of everything that's gone wrong and that everything will continue to go wrong forever more.

      Whenever a truck passes you on the road, you're silently wishing that it would swerve and paste you over the floor. Whenever you go to bed, you're hoping that you simply don't wake up tomorrow. And when this never happens (because sudden accidental death is relatively unlikely in modern society), you dream about just getting the damn thing done yourself. Interestingly enough, depression serves to actively impede this process because its main externally noticeable symptom is to obliterate your interest, motivation and ability to concentrate on anything - including the one remaining thing that you may actively desire at this point (death).

    11. Re:Population levels and social media by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      I think that throughout history, life were always mostly shitty for people, as most of them were used as slaves of some powerful man. Note how most societies try to prevent suicide no matter what, even in so called capitalism where a man owns his property, destroying your body is still outlawed. I suspect that this is because life inherently sucks. In the past, people who felt like that thought they were the exception and not the rule. Nowadays, with social media we finally understand that life are actually shitty for many people, which helps convince more of us that it is ok to get rid of them.

      Too bad that instead of trying to make a happier, balanced society, this will only lead to stronger suicide prevention. After all, slaves must work.

    12. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rates are generally lower in liberal and wealthy societies and high in autocratic and poor societies.

      Can't speak for anyone else really, but from my personal experience with depression wealthy/poor has very little relevance.
      Liberal/autocratic is probably more important.

    13. Re:Population levels and social media by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

      I hadn't heard of that paradox before, it was a very interesting read!

    14. Re:Population levels and social media by pkphilip · · Score: 3, Informative

      As someone who used to battle suicidal thoughts for years let me offer some perspective.

      For a long time there was a single thought that would go through my mind - almost constantly, even when I wasn't really *feeling* depressed. The thought was of stabbing myself in the chest or stomach with a large kitchen knife or cutting myself in a way which would kill me.

      The reason I am putting an * around the word feeling is because I wasn't always self-aware of my deeply depressed state.. Actually, there were times I would even feel euphoric but yet that thought of inflicting such injuries upon myself would constantly go through my mind. By constantly, I mean every few minutes (if not every few seconds).

      The thought was that this act would release me - that it would give me a sense of relief. I am not surprised that some people give in to this senseless feeling.

      For myself, I escaped because I turned to religion. Those thoughts don't cross my mind anymore and haven't anymore. I recognise now that there are forces out there which don't want me alive and that there is also a benevolent personality out there (God) who wants me to live and thrive.

      I realise that this thought may be scorned or mocked on this site and others. But for me it saved my life.

    15. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't think I have ever seen depression described so accurately. Thanks for posting this, whoever you are. I remember laying in bed for hours just wishing my heart would stop beating, unable to even get up for a glass of water because it didn't seem worth the trouble.

    16. Re:Population levels and social media by mmdurrant · · Score: 1

      I want to know why "we" should be making any decisions for rational adults. There seems to be this misconception that wanting to end your life is inherently irrational. A big aspect is the notion of "unresolved problems". We all have things in our lives that go unresolved - maybe a girlfriend that broke up with you, gave no reason, and never spoke to you again, the senseless death of a loved one, or even the suicide of a loved one. Not all of them are this extreme, but a person reaches a point where there are so many problems that have no solutions that eliminating the problems - the constant source of difficult decisions - with a relatively simple choice that then requires no decision-making after... it's appealing. We may never get a satisfactory answer - but again, it's not our existence. Insistence otherwise seems selfish at best.

      --
      I see my shadow changing, stretching up and over me...
    17. Re:Population levels and social media by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Thanks for sharing your experience. It's not uncommon I think. Often depression comes with a feeling of frustration and helplessness. Self harm is a powerful way to take some control of your life, doing something that is permanent and irreversible and meaningful, even if the meaning is... Negative isn't the right word.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    18. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know it may seem counter-intuitive, but I feel if the medical field stopped treating assisted suicide as an non-option for all except people in terminal physical conditions we'd see an increase in the amount of people seeking help, and thus likely a reduction in the amount of suicides.

      I don't think the issue is the medical field as much as the law surrounding this. If a patient is expressing suicidal intentions a therapist has legal obligations to fulfill. This causes a barrier between the (informed) patient and the therapist preventing complete honesty.

    19. Re:Population levels and social media by djinn6 · · Score: 2

      For myself, I escaped because I turned to religion. Those thoughts don't cross my mind anymore and haven't anymore. I recognise now that there are forces out there which don't want me alive and that there is also a benevolent personality out there (God) who wants me to live and thrive.

      I realise that this thought may be scorned or mocked on this site and others. But for me it saved my life.

      I think you still consider yourself powerless. The idea that you're not strong enough or worthy enough to keep living for your own sake is so ingrained that you need someone else is out there who wants you to stay alive. But really, that's not necessary. Living for your own sake is perfectly fine, as billions of atheists do everyday. So I hope one day you can become your own God. Or perhaps even someone else's God.

    20. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm there and not doing well at all and I thank you.

    21. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Suicide is usually a permanent solution to a temporary problem. However, when someone has to live with constant pain with little hope of it going away, suicide is a permanent solution to a permanent problem.

    22. Re:Population levels and social media by Falos · · Score: 1

      I don't like to indulge insoluble problems. If you're playing in a sport, and half your team becomes injured or leaves or whatever, do you even bother going on the field? Same for video games. Same for those 1v1 monster card games. Or maybe those movie lines where I hear "mate in four moves".

      If a friend invites you to play a video game but stipulates that you can only play as the useless joke character, it might be funny and silly. Because it's absurd. Ridiculous. A stranger's invitation will seem a waste of time. You don't participate. You don't bother. You scoop the cards, you abandon the lobby, you announce your defeat, announce the futility and mic drop a GG.

      I wouldn't be above that. I'm not suicidal, but I'm not hearing the "life is precious" song when the world is full of evidence (specifically, decisions and behavior at scales from small to national/global) to the contrary. I'm not clinging THAT hard to my existence, I don't survive . Instinct might kick in if I try to drown myself, but it doesn't help prevent your finger from harmlessly flexing. On a button or trigger. Those are a single instruction from a conscious mind that has decided to return the universe's favor, fate's generosity, with a middle finger of my own, has decided to walk away from The Game.

      Abandoning scenarios with no solution sounds like good resource management, frankly. The only difference with suicide is that there's (probably) nothing after. But resigning in disgust can impact a broken (eg corrupt) office/corporation/etc, even if you're not in their Game anymore.

    23. Re:Population levels and social media by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I'm confused on why you think it's an example of Simpson's paradox. Care to explain why?

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    24. Re:Population levels and social media by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Only psychopaths can put up with total apathy or hatred from everyone they meet. For other people it is very much a form of torture. That's why "living for your own sake" isn't really possible for most people. True, atheists don't need a belief in any deity, but they do need friends or loved ones somewhere in their life. Religious people constantly believe at least one being cares about them. That's probably why religious people tend to live longer... you cannot outlive your deity.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    25. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Living for your own sake is perfectly fine, as billions of atheists do everyday.

      Too bad your goal is self-admittedly impossible for a timeframe of more than a few decades.

      Incidentally, why is it "perfectly fine", specifically? By reference to what? Is it somehow demonstrably "as fine" as someone just deciding to kill you because you're annoying? After all, that choice is "just fine" per evolution.

      Glad you're not suicidal. But as context-dropping and ultimately pointless and goalless as your life objectively is, you probably should be.

    26. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But I think this attitude also creates a trap: people with suicidal thoughts or severe depression know that if they go and seek help they might end up putting themselves in a situation in which they remove the option of suicide from themselves while not removing the suffering. This raises the bar for going to get help because the more serious your condition, the more likely it is that you will be locked up for your own protection.

      That doesn't just hold true "for your own protection" but "for society's protection". Why do you think societies still lock up homosexuals? What do you think of Britain locking up for for anti-social or pscyopathic tendencies? In most cases, it's a catch-22. You'd have to be crazy to be put in a shitter situation, where you're official labelled homosexual, suicidal, or a psychopath, and suddenly change your sexual preference, suddenly want to live, or suddenly stop being manipulative and do the actions (that seem manipulative) to be "normal".

      Honestly, the problem with mental health is precisely that it's manned by people like Freud who think they know the "normal" person and want to shape them in their image. Yet Freud wasn't so asinine to think people had to be absolutely in that vein. The point was to help people help themselves. Sometimes, that's more about making society change than having the person change.

      What's so threatening about a psychopath? Should we lock them all up? The answer should be no. The basis for imprisonment should be for a crime. If we want people to seek help, we should as a society provide it for free. And people should be able to reject it. The stigma behind it might never be fully removed--people are still racists even though being black isn't a crime/sin/whatever--, but a large first step would be to seriously deal with the problem by meaningfully decriminalizing the activity and acting like Jesus: love thy neighbor as thyself.

    27. Re:Population levels and social media by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I think you still consider yourself powerless. The idea that you're not strong enough or worthy enough to keep living for your own sake is so ingrained that you need someone else is out there who wants you to stay alive.

      That's true, and it's one of the big draws of AA, and why AA sucks (useless) for a lot of people, because it teaches you that alcoholism is a disease that everyone is too weak to combat themselves. Mostly bullshit, but some people NEED that message and can only exist under it.

    28. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course he doesn't. Anytime someone throws out some bullshit or a wiki link and adds "do your own research", it means they have nothing to back up their claim.

    29. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of what you said is bullshit.

      You think random people you meet that don't know you have apathy or hatred toward you?

      Religious people tend to live longer? Sure, maybe because there are a lot of cultures that shun or murder apostates. Don't think that happens in the good ol' USA? I wonder how many atheists have committed suicide because they were shunned by their religious families?

    30. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It may be related to the fact that in most rural areas drug and opiate use is going off the charts. While there are both wealthy and poor in rural areas, the demographics are slanted towards the poor.

    31. Re:Population levels and social media by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Of course most people feel apathy. But that's why I said "everyone".

      Studies have shown that in the USA, religious people tend to live longer. It has nothing to do with violent ends. As for being shunned by families, that's exactly my fucking point.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    32. Re:Population levels and social media by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Not all of them are this extreme, but a person reaches a point where there are so many problems that have no solutions that eliminating the problems - the constant source of difficult decisions - with a relatively simple choice that then requires no decision-making after... it's appealing.

      Of course it's appealing, but it's also a decision that there is no coming back from. You won't be able to say "oops, I made a mistake. Maybe I was wrong about all this." You're not smart enough to know that your problems can't be solved. I'm not either. None of us are.

      Insistence otherwise seems selfish at best

      I would say suicide is the ultimate act of selfishness. Maybe that person has no ties to others. Maybe they just can't see those ties to others. For most people it's not the case, and suicide is one of the most devastating things you can do to another person. But hey, you won't be around to pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences.

    33. Re:Population levels and social media by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The closest I got was when I had partly gotten over depression, and felt it start to worsen again, towards my earlier state. It was really tempting to make absolutely sure I wouldn't be that depressed again.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    34. Re:Population levels and social media by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Living for your own sake is perfectly fine, as billions of atheists do everyday.

      That's not the main point, though. It's fine, I'll agree, but it may not be possible. pkphilip apparently had great difficulty with it, turned to religion, and stopped feeling suicidal. I consider this a Good Thing.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    35. Re:Population levels and social media by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Suicide is usually a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

      Serious depression sure doesn't feel temporary, and is very distressing while it goes on. Suicide can easily look like the only way to be not depressed.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    36. Re:Population levels and social media by nasch · · Score: 1

      For myself, I escaped because I turned to religion.

      I expected you to get flamed a lot harder for that. Glad you found a solution to your trials.

    37. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But.. but.. pain and suffering were invented to improve survival!

    38. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that is incredibly unhelpful

    39. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and? Saying God will fix it is just as unhelpful.

    40. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Of the thousands of patients I have seen, only two or three have ever claimed to be unhappy: all the rest have said that they were depressed. This semantic shift is deeply significant, for it implies that dissatisfaction with life is itself pathological, a medical condition, which it is the responsibility of the doctor to alleviate by medical means. Everyone has a right to health; depression is unhealthy; therefore everyone has a right to be happy (the opposite of being depressed). This idea in turn implies that one's state of mind, or one's mood, is or should be independent of the way that one lives one's life, a belief that must deprive human existence of all meaning, radically disconnecting reward from conduct. A ridiculous pas de deux between doctor and patient ensues: the patient pretends to be ill, and the doctor pretends to cure him. In the process, the patient is wilfully blinded to the conduct that inevitably causes his misery in the first place."
      -- Theodore Dalrymple

    41. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you for posting this. It sums up exactly how I feel.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      I think Chester meant the opposite, but when I hear "if I just let go, I'd be set free", I'm thinking: if I kill myself, I'll be free :-(

      Peace

    42. Re:Population levels and social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate that saying it is wrong in so many ways.

      I had a sudden seizure 22 years ago and still are prone to them and since then I have had severe depression and anxiety and has progressively gotten worse to the point of mild psychotic symptoms.

      22 years and medication and therapy not only failed but made me much worse both physically and mentally. We are talking multiple drugs in every class except MAOI's which I can't because of my seizure disorder. At least 35 meds over those years. Bad side effects like permanent tinnitus, hyperprolactimia leading to dangerously low testosterone, vision changes, dangerous weight gain and loss, 'zombieism' - no other way to describe it, tremors, restless legs and the list of side-effects goes on and on. Psych meds suck and would recommend them to few, they are worse to get off of than even most opioids and almost as dangerous. In fact, many are worse when taken as prescribed than opioids taken as prescribed.

      The best thing that has worked is no meds and no therapy. Worked is a relative term, I am still very messed up to the point the VA gave me 100% disability for the mental issues alone, but I am much better than I ever was on meds and going to therapy. I am currently in escrow on a $250k almost new home which the stress of it isn't doing me any favors but the VA payment for all my disabilities(paid at the SMC-S level, which is about $400 more than straight 100%) allows me to do that easily without working which I can not despite my MS in CS. Heck, I tried to get through an interview for grocery cart gopher and couldn't make it though. This is off-topic, but the VA treats me very well. So few in my position are getting nearly $40k a year tax free, most are suffering on SSI or SSDI which keeps them in extreme poverty. So things could be much worse for me.

      Anyway, my problems are permanent. If I decide it becomes too much who is anyone to deny me the right that so many have for physical pain? I can speak with personal experience that even severe but acute pain makes my judgement worse than all of my psych issues. I can't imagine that people with severe and chronic physical pain have good judgement, they are probably suffering from lower levels of competence than the vast majority of psych patients.

  6. Re:Let's sue! by dohzer · · Score: 1

    By the time the court case is done, that'll be worth US$0.00 between them.
    Not sure how they intend to pay for the lawyers.

  7. Darwin wins again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...nothing else to add

  8. Re:Let's sue! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think BTC is going to $0 then you're a certifiable idiot.

  9. Wow, way to guilt trip a ghost by pezpunk · · Score: 1, Funny

    And one known to have depression, too. You monsters.

    --
    i could live a little longer in this prison
    1. Re:Wow, way to guilt trip a ghost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it's puzzling why they quick to lay blame on specifically Robin Williams. His estate is bankrupt. There isn't any money to go after. Attacking the media's coverage is a bit more sensible. They haven't found anything they can't sensationalize yet. Instead of covering why he might have done it, how he did it, or talking about the loss, why not call more attention to help people can get? Do we really need the details of his suicide? That's not news.

    2. Re:Wow, way to guilt trip a ghost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The article did not go the direction that I expected either.

      I only knew Robin Williams through shows and movies where he played very upbeat and positive characters. If I went through a difficult or depressing period, that was the type of stuff I'd watch to feel better. His death, and by suicide no less, was a real shock. I remember thinking "if somebody like that was so depressed in real life, what chance do the rest of us have?"

      I thought maybe other people felt the same way and some of them simply gave up. I wasn't expecting the same kind of "don't glorify X" rhetoric that shoots up every time there's a school shooting.

  10. Re:Suicide is society's dirty little secret by pezpunk · · Score: 0

    feel free to buck the system by offing yourself, rebel.

    --
    i could live a little longer in this prison
  11. Re:Let's sue! by pezpunk · · Score: 1

    1 bitcoin is worth $8300 right now, and is still up 800% from one year ago.

    snark fail.

    --
    i could live a little longer in this prison
  12. To quote Donald Kaul by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Suicide is the sincerest form of self-criticism.

  13. Re:Suicide is society's dirty little secret by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be a lot easier if I could get drugs and not have to worry about ppl calling the cops.

  14. Re:Let's sue! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The difference between "right now" and "by the time the court case is done" can be a very, very, very long time. Therefore,the snark is quite potent. You are the one who failed.

  15. Re:Let's sue! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh and no one loses money on Bitcoin. I haven't heard of anyone losing. That's the best thing about the block chain!
    And not only that, everyone's heard of a brother's teacher's nephew's best mate who has made a billion dollars from it! Amazing.

  16. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by c6gunner · · Score: 0

    So you want to kill yourself, but you won't do it because you're afraid the police will arrest you after?

    That's a special kind of stupid.

  17. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So you want to kill yourself, but you won't do it because you're afraid the police will arrest you after?
    That's a special kind of stupid.

    It's perfectly logical. They want to end it because their life is shit, and they're worried that if they get caught trying to end it, the police will make their life more shit. You're a special kind of asshole.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  18. Re:Thank God by f3rret · · Score: 2

    The sheer weirdness of slashdot trolls never cease to amaze.

    --
    Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
  19. Lots of things trigger suicides... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And its going to spike again soon, valentines day. The loneliest day of the year.
    There are many triggers for this. but mostly its due to society really sucking!!

  20. Robin Williams died by auto-erotic asphyxiation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ... and when his family and friends found his body, they made it look like a suicide.

  21. Wrong Conculstions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've attempted suicide and failed at it. The more coverage suicide gets, the more people come out saying it's only for cowards. Only lazy people do it. The people are selfish. Etc... The perceived attacks against oneself are enough to drive you to suicide. Not only do you already have the poorest self image, everyone else is saying you're even worse. There's nothing lazy about being suicidal depressed. Sometimes you literal have no energy to do anything, Just tossing a meal in the microwave can feels like trying to walk to the moon. You just can't do it.

    Being selfish? FUCK YOU. The person is currently living in hell and those around him/her can't even bother to notice. Why should I live in unending torment just so you don't have the inconvenience of maybe attending a funeral? You're the selfish brat. Plus some of us feel the world would be a better place without us so we're actually making your life better by dying. That's not selfish either. You go kill yourself to reduce your carbon footprint.

    Me a coward? I bet you can't even fake trying to killing yourself. Hold some scissors and hang yourself for one minute or just slash a light cut all the way down your arm. Go head, do it. You won't die doing those things but you won't be able to bring yourself to do them. If a lazy coward can do that and more, what kind of low life scum are you? Your suicidal coward has more bravery than you.

    Of course the suicidal person is dead so everyone blames the victim so they can feel better. I understand that. But doing so causes more suicides and makes us depressed people hide due to social fear. Anyone who successfully commits suicide on purpose deserves your respect. It's a hard thing to do, especially considering doing anything while depressed is already difficult. People 'suddenly' kill themselves because bringing the topic up means everyone around you attacks you whether they realize it or not. Best to stay silent and hidden. Then you may have a chance without everyone you know being directly against you. How many times have you blamed someone who committed suicide? If anyone around you is depressed they know to hide it from you and anyone who talks with you. We've got enough grief to deal with already.

    1. Re:Wrong Conculstions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To some extent I agree, but I also feel that you could have phrased it in a way more likely to be accepted by the reader.
      With your current tone I feel that you are more likely to create polarization and less understanding of suicide.

      I've seen one analogy that appears to be able to reach trough to those who can't comprehend why anyone would take their own life.
      Think of a burning skyscraper. There is a man in a window high up. He decides to jump.
      This doesn't save him. In fact, he knows that he is jumping to a certain death.
      He doesn't do it because he wants to die. He jumps because it is preferable to the alternative.

      Before you say that someone who committed suicide chose the easy path: Realize that they didn't want to die anymore than the man who jumped from the burning skyscraper.
      They chose to die because the other option was worse.

      Another thing I have noticed is that people seem to be far more accepting of assisted suicide when it comes to autoimmune disorders or untreatable cancers.
      What those have in common is that it is essentially your own body that turns against you and people understand how frightening that is.
      What they generally don't consider is that one of the main reasons for suicide is mental disorders where your own mind turns against you.
      If you think it is bad when you are fighting a losing battle against your body, imagine fighting a losing battle against your mind.

    2. Re:Wrong Conculstions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why can't society make it easy by liberalizing suicide markets? It's the most rational thing to do.

      Consider a passage from my brother's suicide letter:

      If they can put a man on the moon
      You'd think
      They could give us totally painless suicide,
      available on demand, in clinics, for a fee.
      Hell of a profitable business!!! of course,
      the criminals would cut corners and the
      sadists make you suffer until, like everything
      else, you'd be as afraid to go to the
      Clinic as you are to pull the trigger.

    3. Re: Wrong Conculstions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hi, after my failed attempted suicide I used to think like that. Then I realised that I was talking about the murder of a human being. The fact that the human being was me was secondary. What was wrong with my life that I was willing to apply such extreme levels of violence to regain power and control. My journey took me to crtiquing the other behaviours I had done or had done to me, with power and control as their motive, and the reasons for anger and, underneath every anger, the fear.

      In my depression I was never so cognitively distorted as to view self-murder as a mercy killing, even though I had nil future.

      As for selfishness, reflect on this: the statistics are quite clear, one suicide in a family doubles or triples the likelihood of another suicide. Considered as a disease, suicide is deadly and is highly contagious. It also endures, remaining virulent down generations.

      So would you self-murder knowing that your actions may cause the death of yiur child, sister or parent?

      Such consequences is why the research in the OP is insightful. The deaths arising from Robin Williams death will continue fror years to come, even though in a legal sense Williams is not a perp.

      It also shows the poster who vilified your comments is an unthinking brute, prepared to encourage multiple deaths. You understand the need to reach for help, even though that effort seems purposeless (been there, done that). The troll however has a different set of deep and real problems.

    4. Re:Wrong Conculstions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look, I get where you're coming from. I've been depressed, I've grappled with suicidal thoughts and plans.

      But accept that you don't get to decide what everyone else thinks of you. Among other things depression is, it is extremely - extremely - egocentric. Part of emerging from depression is realizing and accepting that you have responsibilities to others, responsibilities that you really can fulfil, because "getting up and keeping on living" is something you've done every day of your freakin' life, billions of people do it every day with no special training at all, many of them in way tougher environments than you, it's not that hard.

      Everyone doesn't "blame the victim so they can feel better". Many (not all) of them blame the suicide for dumping all their shit on them, and doing it in the most shocking and violent and non-negotiable, not to say expensive, way imaginable. It's the survivors who are the true victims of suicide.

      Get over yourself.

    5. Re:Wrong Conculstions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Me a coward? I bet you can't even fake trying to killing yourself. Hold some scissors and hang yourself for one minute or just slash a light cut all the way down your arm. Go head, do it. You won't die doing those things but you won't be able to bring yourself to do them. If a lazy coward can do that and more, what kind of low life scum are you? Your suicidal coward has more bravery than you.

      You think you're not a coward because you can do something fucking stupid to yourself? The rest of us don't do it, not because we're cowards, but because we don't want to. Get some perspective you nut.

    6. Re:Wrong Conculstions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've attempted suicide and failed at it.

      Why should we listen to anything you say? You're an admitted failure. You had one job and couldn't even do that properly. :P

    7. Re:Wrong Conculstions by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      You're selfish because you're not considering what your death will cause other people. You're also a coward because you don't want to face life.

      Go ahead and live it. I know people that have had a really bad hand dealt to them. A spine that collapsed and they knew it at an early age this would happen. A sister that had MS. Yet they stuck it out and managed to see great things. You never know what is just around the bend of life. Maybe you can help someone else? Once you're gone, that's it.

  22. Re:Let's sue! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh and no one loses money on Bitcoin. I haven't heard of anyone losing. That's the best thing about the block chain! And not only that, everyone's heard of a brother's teacher's nephew's best mate who has made a billion dollars from it! Amazing.

    Ask all those fools who bought it at $20,000 and hoped it went up even more. only a small subset of people who use BT actually these days mine for coins. So yah there are PLENTY of peeps who have made a ton fo cash on it but there is also a ton who have lost recently. And let us not even talk about all the exchange hacks and stolen coin.

    I personally don't know anyone who owns a Bugatti but I KNOW there are people who do.

  23. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  24. So? by sabbede · · Score: 1

    That doesn't matter. Back in 2009 it was all I could do not to put on a Batman costume and hang myself.

  25. Sorry, that was messed up. by sabbede · · Score: 1

    I only put one space after the period. Sorry everyone!

  26. Male/Female breakdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does anyone know the male/female breakdown in this spike?

    Wikipedia says "Globally as of 2012, death by suicide occurs about 1.8 times more often in males than females. In the Western world, males die three to four times more often by means of suicide than do females. This difference is even more pronounced in those over the age of 65, with tenfold more males than females dying by suicide."

    Society is slow to help problems that hurt men more and suicide seems a big one that hurts men significantly.

    1. Re:Male/Female breakdown? by Rockoon · · Score: 0

      Society is slow to help problems that hurt men more and suicide seems a big one that hurts men significantly.

      Men are disposable. So much so that even presidential candidates can get away with saying things like "Women are the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat." - Hillary Clinton

      This, of course, is called "patriarchy."

      Men are nothing. Women are everything. All hail leftism.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    2. Re:Male/Female breakdown? by lucasnate1 · · Score: 2

      Considering the fact that rightwingers have been sending men to die in wars for years while women are safe back home, I would say that this hardly only the left's worldview.

    3. Re:Male/Female breakdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahahahaha what a whiny little shit.

    4. Re:Male/Female breakdown? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Considering the fact that rightwingers have been sending men to die in wars for years while women are safe back home, I would say that this hardly only the left's worldview.

      Sometimes fiction imitates life and you see the same thing. I know a bunch of MRA-types think Game of Thrones sucks because there are so many "strong females" in it right now (the show kindof sucks now, but for different reasons..) but that's what happens when all of the men of various houses, army leaders, patriarchs, and kings all try their best to kill each other. Many die, and the women fill the power vacuum, but it wouldn't have happened if the men didn't make up all the soldiers, battle commanders, generals, and kings.

  27. Nerd Suicides by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was there a similar spike in nerd suicides after the nerd who bugged the closet at MIT (can't remember his name) killed himself during an autoerotic asphixiation session?

    1. Re: Nerd Suicides by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, because nobody wants to be associated with that kind of shit rabble. Besides nobody cared for that loser, except other losers. By the way, didn't they launch a campaign to have the case's judge removed? How did it work out? (Snicker)

  28. Re:So it's the media's fault? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hmm... let's see, what do we have on TV? Horror stories about war and strife, domestic and abroad, in the news. Various lowlifes yelling at each other in afternoon talkshows. "Celebrities" that have bigger boobs than brains, and whose only reason for their celebrity status is those built-in airbags and the airheads on top of them. Shows where we worship people for being able to pull off weird stunts or entertain us in some other way. And sitcoms that celebrate idiocy, a hedonistic lifestyle and unemployment, with what used to be called "successful people" being the butt of the jokes.

    Maybe it is the media's fault?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  29. Re:So it's the media's fault? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The media blasts Donald Trump, Donald Trump gets elected.

  30. Re: Let's sue! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There will always be collectable value in the relics themselves. Like with the sad dude still selling Magic the Gathering cards on a card table in an obscure outdoor flea market.

  31. Re:Thank God by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Quite a lot of them do at the very least a very good impression of mental illness. Many seem to have overwhelming obsessive hatreds that consume their lives and fill them with constant anger. Very unhealthy. Even with ACs you can often tell (95% certainty) when it's the same person, who posts exactly the same words showing hatred/disgust about a particular issue on every thread regardless of any relevance - and carries on, sometimes for months, often getting no replies positive or negative.. That's not trolling or flamebait, it's obsessive illness or something, posting to scratch some sort of unbearable mental itch.

    (Yeah, and that's not to say it's wrong to be upset or angry about certain things - it's the obsession that's the problem).

  32. Re:Robin Williams died by auto-erotic asphyxiation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    World's Greatest Dad was Robin Williams's best role.

  33. Nothing wrong with suicide imo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey we are all going to die sometime, if someones life sucks, I don't blame them one bit for offing themselves.Suicide booths from Futurama are a good idea(Even with email footage to people, better that then in person).

    One less car on the road, one less mouth to feed. If you keep talking people into staying alive, I think in some it could breed resentment and that may well be where a lot of mass murder suicides come from.

    We could also have a loving and caring world, but the people running the show don't want that. Manipulation, diversity, conflict, taxation/theft/greed...

    1. Re:Nothing wrong with suicide imo by Shompol · · Score: 1

      My grandma, who was an atheist commie, used to say that after having invested two decades of hard work into raising a human being it is a great waste to have someone killed in a second. So simply from economic perspective suicides don't make sense.

    2. Re:Nothing wrong with suicide imo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your grandmother doesn't understand the sunken cost fallacy.

    3. Re:Nothing wrong with suicide imo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I prefer to think of myself as an investment as opposed to a sunken cost.

  34. it's time to grow up, folks by NikeHerc · · Score: 1

    "In the case of celebrities, the potential for someone at risk to make an emotional connection and over-identify with them is greater, in some cases even to interpret their death as affirmation that they could take their own life."

    As children, we are taught to value certain "famous" people, such as athletes, actors, musicians, politicians, etc. As adults, many continue a fixation with "famous" people. At some point I decided none of these "famous" people had much of worth to add to society and many seemed to have a lot more problems (drugs, crime, inappropriate behaviors, stupendous greed, much more) than I did, so I ended my fixations. I am my own person and I really don't give a rat's ass about anyone "famous." Prior to my learning to ignore "famous" people, I very much respected Robin Williams' talents, especially his amazing ability at improvisation. I am sorry for his suicide, but I have no wish to join him.

    Perhaps there's a lesson herein.

    --
    Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
    1. Re:it's time to grow up, folks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is similar when Celebrities turn out to be rapists or other kinds of creeps. So many people's fantasy worlds are crushed. Or, worse, they defend their chosen Celebrity, even after they have been convicted.

      Or, maybe, don't worship Celebrities and you don't have to be crushed when the turn out to be dirtbags. When someone famous turns out to be an actual good person, you can feel happy. No need to worship them.

  35. Re:Robin Williams died by auto-erotic asphyxiation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Weird eroticism, too. Most that die this way die in bed, but he had some fetish about standing on a chair and knocking it over while literally hanging fully dressed in a suit. That is a sick way to get off.

  36. So it's the video game's fault? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't forget realistic video games glorifying violent acts to our fellows as entertainment. A digital bread and circuses. An opiate for the masses.

    1. Re:So it's the video game's fault? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      At least in those games you still have to DO something to achieve something. Sometimes you even have to use your brain.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:So it's the video game's fault? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just like all the other stuff this forum's blaming. So why "brain" on this and "willful blindness" on the rest? Couldn't have anything to do with the fear of having your toys being taken away?

    3. Re:So it's the video game's fault? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pushing buttons isn't doing anything.

      Numbnuts, stop fucking crying

  37. So it's the violent gore's fault? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Twitch TV shows us violent video game gore and....nothing happens. Slashdot glorifies piracy and downloads go up.

  38. Was the increase related to the method? by Chrondeath · · Score: 1

    I don't see the summary or the article indicating that the increased suicides were all done using the same method as Robin Williams. If they were, that would support the implication that the reporting should be less detailed about the method. If it was just a general uptick in suicide across all methods, though, then it seems like wishful thinking to claim that it would have been averted if only outlets had been more responsible. If the increase was due more to thinking along the lines of "If Robin Williams can do it, then I can too", then it's difficult to report on it at all without causing an impact.

  39. Re:So it's the media's fault? by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

    Yes, the truth must be hidden from the slaves, so that they'll think they have hope, so that they'll keep chruning at the factories.

  40. Re:Suicide is society's dirty little secret by guruevi · · Score: 1

    You don't need drugs to kill yourself. There are quicker, faster, less painful and way more fun ways to die.

    I would highly recommend you call the national suicide hotline or seek counseling first though, if after all is said and done, you still feel you would rather not be alive, I think it should be perfectly legal to do that, especially if it prevents further pain and suffering in the person's life, but I would make sure that everyone has the option to at least get counseling and other mental health support.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  41. It is horrible! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly we need a law to forbid Robin Williams to ever commit suicide again. If it saves one life it is worth it.

  42. Nice millennial logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are all great experts at drawing lines between two completely unrelated things. That's known as a 'false equivalency', and that seems to be how your brains have largrly been programmed by your parents and society. Give me a break. Do you actually *want* people to continue believing you have the depth of and are capable of the critical thought of something growing in a petrie dish? Suicide is complex (I know you hate that too), it takes more than hearing about a celebrity to push someone over the edge. Then again, that's precisely the maturity level of millennials, so pray tell: how do you, with your inability to cope with walking by an inert piece of paper, factor into this '10%'?

  43. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by mmdurrant · · Score: 1

    Or the worst case outcome in my mind - becoming a turnip and instead of you having to deal with the burden of your shitty existence, someone else has to wipe your ass.

    --
    I see my shadow changing, stretching up and over me...
  44. Re:So it's the media's fault? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Truth? What truth is there in a dud bombshell with huge tits? Is that what you want your kids to learn, it doesn't matter what's between your ears or whether you know how to use it, what matters is that you know how to use what's between your legs?

    This is what we base our society on. What do you get out of the media these days? Fear, hate, tits and the weather report.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  45. Depression and suicide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Posting as AC for reasons.

    Those who are truly clinically depressed (as opposed to situationally depressed) tend to have a plan to commit suicide. Mind you this is not from any scientific study because we're not stupid enough to tell people about it.

    Yes. I said "we". Hence the AC posting.

    For all those who are lucky enough not to be permanently depressed let me fill you in on something. For us suicide is always an option in the list of choices for bad situations. And for us there's a lot of bad situations.

    So the next time you wonder "How could they have done that? I would never have done that! They're stupid for not getting help!" remember that the decision was made a long time before the event and it was the option they chose.

    The best thing you can do is reach out and keep in contact with the people you know are depressed. They're not going to reach out to you. Posting the suicide awareness memes on social media may make you feel all warm and fuzzy that you've 'helped' but unless you take an active role you're just being an insensitive dick. Seeing that and having a silent phone makes it worse.

    YMMV

    1. Re:Depression and suicide by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      In the US, the right to own a gun is considered one of the most important rights. If you have depression and seek help, you may be banned for life from owning one.

      The system is designed to encourage people to not seek help. Even attempts to violate doctor/client privacy to make judgements on suitability for firearm ownership.

      Help isn't available. Sure, there are some "hotlines" designed to help with teen issues, but the hotlines are not designed for mature people with real medical issues.

      So long as suicides happen in "clusters" is proof that suicides are, in part, caused by anti-suicide sentiments. If those with urges were able to get real help without prejudice or penalty, they wouldn't be as enticed by the thoughts as they are publicized after incidents.

    2. Re:Depression and suicide by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      It's not just gun ownership. There's lots of things that can turn out bad for a person with a medical history of mental health problems. We're seeing plenty of ACs here talk about their experiences, because they don't want to leave an easy-to-follow record. (I'm not bothering, but if I were fired today and never worked again I'd still have a comfortable retirement.)

      On the other hand, if you can just hide mental illness, and lots of us are or have been good at that, there's no legal or social repercussions.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    3. Re:Depression and suicide by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      The problem is many try to hide it until it's t late. And preventable problems occur that wouldn't have if people could get quality help without prejudice or injury.

  46. Re:Robin Williams died by auto-erotic asphyxiation by mmdurrant · · Score: 1

    As someone who lost a friend recently to strangulation of some kind, I fucking hoped autoerotic asphyxiation was the cause. It still would have meant the loss of my friend, but it would at least make _some_ fucking sense. Embarrassing or whatever, it beats the hell out of a 2 sentence note that leaves more questions than answers.

    --
    I see my shadow changing, stretching up and over me...
  47. Re:So it's the media's fault? by mmdurrant · · Score: 1

    They wouldn't play it if people didn't watch it and sit through the ads...

    --
    I see my shadow changing, stretching up and over me...
  48. Maybe it shouldn't be illegal? by ErichTheRed · · Score: 1

    Most taboos about suicide are religion-centric, but it's actually illegal to attempt and succeed. Why can't we just acknowledge that some people don't want to live anymore and actually help them out? Some obvious examples:
    - Someone dealing with a terminal illness that will destroy them slowly over many painful years, or destroy their minds like dementia or Alzheimer's disease
    - Someone facing a lifetime prison sentence
    - Someone who's so badly depressed, unable to affect it via medication or other means, and just done with life.

    Less obvious examples include what's coming next...unfortunately, we're entering an era where doing everything right, getting a good education and keeping out of trouble doesn't guarantee stability. I work at a company that has a lot of long-term employees, and they're starting to lay them off in their 50s. Imagine being 55, 4.5 years from the age where you can start using your retirement accounts penalty-free and 7 years from the age where you can start drawing your Social Security benefits. The job you've been at for 20+ years kicks you out, and no one wants to hire you because of your age. If you can't get SS disability or something similar, your life is going to be miserable from that point on. Suicides among this group are definitely going to spike once automation really comes for all the knowledge workers.

    1. Re:Maybe it shouldn't be illegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      None of that has ever guaranteed stability. Also, if more laid-off workers would do something grand and violent about it, maybe they'd think twice next time. I mean, if someone else paints you into a corner, the fault is on them.

  49. I cut myself to feel alive by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    is a common joke phrase I used to think nothing about. A friend of mine with a history of mental illness in his family pointed out that the reason depressed people cut themselves is that the only way to get mental health services without a boatload of cash is to be an active danger to yourself or others. Not 'could be a danger' but actually a danger; e.g. you need evidence that you're going to something violent in the next 24 hours.

    Basically the mentally ill will hurt themselves when they feel an attack coming on so they can get help. This is the would we live in folks.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  50. Re:So it's the media's fault? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Why should network bother paying for high profile shows with good production values when they can get more net profit out of scripted reality shows that cost less than a board dinner? Yes, you could get better ratings for the expensive shows, but the difference in ratings is so small that you still net more money with slightly lower ad revenue but considerably lower programming cost.

    A few months ago, the head of a big German TV network called his core target audience "a little fat, a little poor" in a telco with shareholders and got fire... I mean, it was suggested to him to reorient himself employment-wise. Even though it's true. Everyone who does give a shit what's on TV did already dump "old school" TV networks in favor or Netflix, Amazon and whatever other streaming services exist. What's left as the viewers of classic TV networks is those that are too lazy or too poor to pull the plug and watch those shows they want to see when they want to see them.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  51. Re:So it's the media's fault? by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with tits and weather report? And as for fear and hate, I believe that libertarians, christians, muslims, jews, vegans, feminists, preached them before modern media existed.

  52. It gets worse than that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't have a citation for the stats...but I read that when suicides are widely reported, airplanes start falling from the sky.

    I am not joking. The rate of airplane crashes goes up after such stories. It's the same phenomenon that the summary discusses: people who are on the edge get pushed over the edge when they see stories about others committing suicide. And that includes depressed airplane pilots.

  53. More than one Public Library of Science? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any reason why the publication is named PLoS One?

  54. Re:So it's the media's fault? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with it is that this is ALL that is left. No information. No education. Nothing of substance.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  55. Re:So it's the media's fault? by PPH · · Score: 1

    It matters what's between her tits. Preferably, my ears.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  56. Re:So it's the media's fault? by PPH · · Score: 1

    Bread and circuses.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  57. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Or the worst case outcome in my mind - becoming a turnip and instead of you having to deal with the burden of your shitty existence, someone else has to wipe your ass.

    That's the worst-case outcome for society, but if you're a vegetable, do you know you're a vegetable?

    In any case, a certain percentage of people will probably always try to kill themselves, but I bet it could be a lot lower in our society if it were less of a rat race.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  58. The signs should be required curriculum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When I was 17 a childhood friend of mine committed suicide. His name was Robert Craig. He also killed his stepfather. I had known the guy since 2nd grade, we had been best friends for a while. Thing is, the warning signs were all there, to anybody who knew to look.

    When we were 14 he told me that the only reason he didn't kill himself was that he was afraid of disappointing his step father.

    When we were 16 he once took a hunting knife and cut himself on his upper arm to see what would happen. Turns out this is very common among suicidal people: they are testing out techniques to see what will work, what hurts, etc.

    In the summer of 1997 he was really depressed and angry all the time. He turned 18 in August and suddenly the depression cleared up and for a couple weeks and he was really happy, talkative, went to parties and so on. Again a classic warning sign: the suicidal person feels great relief once they've decided to do it.

    Beginning in September he started giving his stuff away, and told his mom not to buy the new car he'd been asking for. He gave me his SNES. It was old, but we'd spent a lot of time playing games on it. Another sign: he was giving tokens to people he wanted to remember him.

    Mid-month, on a Saturday, we were at a party and he told everybody, including me, that he was going to off himself. Another classic sign: a last plea for help. We laughed it off.

    He did it on a Tuesday, if I remember correctly. My high school counselor called my mom the next morning, and I didn't go to school for a couple of day, I was sad.

    Years later, when I was in the Army, we had suicide prevention training. It blew my mind: only then did I learn what a classic case Robbie was. If I had known in high school what I learned a few years later, both my friend and his stepdad would be alive. I felt pretty guilty for a while, but I was a kid then and I did not know any better. But if the "Personal Survival" classes had spent one hour teaching us about suicide instead of exhorting us not to drink alcohol, hundreds or thousands of kids could live every year.

    I lost my pictures of him in a house fire. Incidentally, he went to Columbine High School. A year and a half later a couple of nutjobs shot the place up, and since my friend was a metal head some people tried to link him to it. So the school won't even answer requests to get a copy of his senior photo.

    1. Re:The signs should be required curriculum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go to a local library, they often have local yearbooks. Take a picture of it with your phone.

  59. Re:So it's the media's fault? by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

    Education for what? Which information? Who decides?

  60. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It has happened before (1774). It will happen again (2014). There is even a coincidental anniversary hidden there.

  61. Foxconn by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

    The Suicide rate in an average American High School is worse than a Chinese Foxconn factory, yet Americans complain about the Chinese and never look to their own house.

  62. Can't Stop Them by JimSadler · · Score: 1

    I had a close friend who announced that he would hang himself in one year if his music didn't sell. In fact he did it. He refused to get help and did not believe that any real help was available. Laws regarding mental health make it next to impossible to put people in a controlled environment until real therapy is applied. The right to not be in a mental hospital has now trumped the right to life. There really are people who have a real need to kill themselves but most suicides are not such cases. Certain cancers combined with things like an expensive divorce and poverty are a good reason to commit suicide as the future is bleak and painful.

    1. Re:Can't Stop Them by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The right to not be in a mental hospital has now trumped the right to life.

      You're not talking about the right to life; you're talking about mandated continued living. Moreover, there are very good reasons to make it difficult to send someone to a mental hospital involuntarily, getting them out of the way for whatever purpose.

      It's usually possible to do an involuntary commitment if a person is a severe imminent threat to themselves or others, but the warning signs are often missed. (If someone turns undepressed all of a sudden, that's very likely because that person has a plan for suicide.)

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  63. Look at all the posts about suicide! by SpankiMonki · · Score: 1

    ...and yet not one of them moderated as "Funny". Is that weird, or what?

  64. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

    What deters me is that my life insurance policies may not pay out if my death is ruled a suicide. My family long ago realized I have no value except for whatever money I can bring home, and encouraged me to load up on life insurance policies back when I could get them. But most of these policies have the standard "no suicide" clause. At some point, my family may decide that being rid of me is worth more than the life insurance would bring in, especially since, as I get older, the premiums become increasingly more expensive, while inflation makes the payout worth less and less in real terms over time. But for now they are willing to put up with me so long as I stay away, bring home a paycheck, but otherwise leave them alone. So no matter how much I look forward to death, I can't be the one to make it happen. At least not yet. But maybe we all get lucky at some point and I get cancer or a heart attack or run over by the proverbial bus. Can't be my fault. But one can always hope.

  65. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

    One of my great fears also. It's not that I don't value the lives or the happiness of the disabled in the more general case. i consider every life valuable until proven otherwise. But mine already has. I'm already a burden to everyone in spite of being of mostly sound body and mind. I don't *ever* want to become even more of a burden than I already am. I don't yet have a DNR or any similar paperwork but I need to get going on getting all that. I don't want to live at all, and I *certainly* don't want to live at the expense of others.

  66. His death was ruled a suicide but I have doubts... by Narcocide · · Score: 1

    I have doubts about the other 1,841 cases, too.

  67. Curing Depression by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I spent about 10 years with massive depression. Its gone now. I was never suicidal, but I was dysfunctional. Doing the simplest thing, like getting off the couch, seemed almost impossible. It could take me days just to get a few sentences written. I experienced extreme mental anguish constantly.

    Here are some insights and advice for survival and recovery:

    Rule 1. Whatever you believe is the problem is not the problem.
    I was always completely convinced that I was unhappy because of something in my my environment. Didn't get a good grade, too much pressure, girl turned me down, whatever. The belief that any of these things caused my depression was totally wrong. Subjective beliefs about the cause of depression are an illusion because the brain reflexively attributes its own mood to external conditions. Use reason to compartmentalize and deal rationally with those beliefs, even though you can not eliminate them.

    Rule 2: The problem is physiological.
    Something has gone with your body chemistry. According the most recent and best medical evidence, many forms of depression are caused by tissue inflammation and most likely brain inflammation. In my case, it was food allergies. I finally identified what in my diet was provoking the allergy/inflammation, eliminated those foods, and recovered. Dairy and wheat were two big ones for me. It could be anything in your diet, meats, eggs, nuts, soy, whatever. Simplify your diet down to a few foods you need to sustain yourself, see if that helps, if not alter the combination. Also, there is evidence that modern western diets high in processed food, specifically sugar and starches which promote the growth of harmful bacteria are a cause. Here is another guy on Slashdot who says that eliminating those things cured his depression. It might also be caused by exposure to environmental allergens, for a while I was taking desensitization injections of allergens and these would always be followed by a depressive episode lasting a few days.

    Rule 3: Fix your blood sugar levels with diet and exercise
    There is growing evidence that this improves brain health. It certainly improves mine though it was not a subjectively beneficial effect until I fixed the inflammation first.

    Rule 4: Get medical treatment.
    This did not work for me. Anti-depressants made me feel worse but they might work for you. Doctors understand depression better now and there are new drugs out. Because it is a physiological disorder, medical treatment is the correct approach. You can also research depression online now, which can provide some guidance. If your doctor sucks, get another one. You do not want some moron Freudian mentally encumbered by that pseudoscience. I had many terrible doctors and some good ones.

    Rule 5 . Never give up
    Keep trying. I never gave up and came out well, life can be fantastic for you.

           

    1. Re:Curing Depression by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same anonymous coward here with one additional point, that some claim that micronutrients can play a substantial role in mental health, see the youtube video about that.

  68. I'll admit it. I'm a copycat by mnemotronic · · Score: 1

    The potential risk of copycat incidents after celebrity cases is known to public health bodies.

    I got a boobjob after Lindsay Lohan got one. Then I became a drug addict and alcoholic so I could go through treatment like .... well, like everyone. Then I caught cancer so I could be like Larry King, and others. Then I died so I could be like Prince. Then I resurrected so I could be like Elvis. Let me tell you, the copycat lifestyle takes a lot of commitment.

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
  69. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by c6gunner · · Score: 1

    Well that'd pretty fucking sad.

    Have you considered trying something like this?

    Pretty sure they couldn't technically classify that as suicide ...

    Alternately, you could try talking to a shrink. They didn't do jack for me, but I've heard they can be helpful ...

  70. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by c6gunner · · Score: 1

    It's perfectly logical. They want to end it because their life is shit, and they're worried that if they get caught trying to end it, the police will make their life more shit.

    If you're so incompetent that you can't even make a one-time small purchase of drugs in a major city, I can understand why you might be suicidal. I suppose in that case you could always overdose on aspirin. There are plenty of legal drugs which can kill you, and you don't have to worry about Da Po Po ruining your party.

    You're a special kind of asshole.

    Aww, that's really sweet of you. I'd like to think I'm at least above average, but it's nice to get honest feedback.

  71. Say it with me, Slashdotters... by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    Correlation is not causation.

    Unless people were leaving suicide notes citing Williams’ suicide as a reason for theirs or happened to be doing it in the exact same way, including minor details INDICATING a relashionship, I doubt there is anything to this. Their there lacks a certain... je ne sais quoi... là?

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
    1. Re:Say it with me, Slashdotters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is not true at all. Correlation doesn't imply causation but many times correlation is proven to be a cause over time. Morons get that confused all the time so you can be forgiven.

      There are always spikes in suicides following a famous person's suicide, this has been known for decades. It is as predictable as time.

      The only surprise is that anyone was surprised enough at the results to make a big deal of it. The 'researchers' must have made it to third grade in the same elementary that you dropped out of in second grade.

      numbnuts

  72. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

    Believe it or not, it has occurred to me. But the most likely outcome would not be death, but a serious beat-down, likely resulting in at least temporary inability to work, and making me even more of a burden to those around me. Now, even that might be better than having to see shrinks, based on about 2 decades of experience being forced to do so. But I think my family deserve better than would likely result from either.

  73. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by c6gunner · · Score: 1

    Agreed. I've considered it in the past also, but never carried through due to concern for my family. Wish I had some advice to offer but it sounds like you've been through it all already. All I can do is commiserate.

  74. Re: Suicide is society's dirty little secret by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

    Sorry you feel that way. I wouldn't wish it on anyone except myself.

  75. Maybe some OTHER factors? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From the PLOS One abstract:
    Investigating suicides following the death of Robin Williams, a beloved actor and comedian, on August 11th, 2014, we used time-series analysis to estimate the expected number of suicides during the months following Williams’ death.

    It kind of looks like: "gee, he died and it looks like suicides went up, let's publish that". From how I read the report it doesn't look like they did a heck of a lot of investigation into what else was going-on in society at the time.

    Either that, or they saw a spike in suicides, kind of figured a start date for it, looked at an almanac, and saw that something marginally famous died on that day...

  76. And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've never understood this obsession with trying to prevent suicide. If a person is in enough pain that they don't want to live anymore, then they should have the right to end their life. It is THEIR life. Not yours.

    More goody-goody, self-absorbed SJW B.S. Oh, look at us. We are so enlightened. We care. Not about the individuals involved, but with our reputation for being morally superior. Aren't we just the most precious?

    1. Re:And? by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      I've never understood this obsession with trying to prevent suicide. If a person is in enough pain that they don't want to live anymore, then they should have the right to end their life. It is THEIR life. Not yours.

      More goody-goody, self-absorbed SJW B.S. Oh, look at us. We are so enlightened. We care. Not about the individuals involved, but with our reputation for being morally superior. Aren't we just the most precious?

      It's because it's more than just them. Sure it's your life and go live it. However if you terminate it then you affect those around you. Ever watch it's a wonderful life? You should sometime.

    2. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Odd then, that in the US, it is typically the more liberal states that allow physician assisted suicide and if you are in a red state hell hole you are shit out of luck for not only suicide assistance but help of any kind, unless you can afford it.

      Of course, medical centers in these third world shit holes are substandard anyway.

      numbnuts

    3. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A movie proves nothing jackass, try living in the real world.

  77. Re:So it's the media's fault? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Katy Tur has epic tits and isn't peddling fear or hate and she doesn't do the weather. Plus, she is very intelligent. That is a win for everyone!

    Stop crying, numbnuts.

  78. Re:Let's sue! by pezpunk · · Score: 1

    $11,000 and counting. up 40% since your moronic comment!

    --
    i could live a little longer in this prison