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