Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 115 posts

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#81

Post by helloindia »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #17
antibland wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More heartbreaking would be if the pets of these suicide owners die of starvation over a period of terrifying, lonely days. It's more heartwarming, if anything, that a person who wishes to end their suffering still holds empathy and respect for the living.

People who feel their lives are so terrible it isn't worth going on are usually not monsters. It's usually someone else in their lives that is a monster. They usually just have too many problems, not enough support and have spent too many years wrestling with it without resolution. If they were monsters, they would probably be planning someone else's death, not their own. It seems all too common that people around th…

Reminded me of this[https://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3448140.htm], where China continues to label Tibetan self-immolators, as Terrorists.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#82

Post by bloodorange »

schwurb wrote: post #75
DoreenMichele wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who feel their lives are so terrible it isn't worth going on are usually not monsters. It's usually someone else in their lives that is a monster. They usually just have too many problems, not enough support and have spent too many years wrestling with it without resolution. If they were monsters, they would probably be planning someone else's death, not their own. It seems all too common that people around th…

It can also be not entirely or to any degree selfish. Depending on the particular state one is in, the world can be like a place where one is only causing harm, no good. Friends and family suffer because of oneself, one is betraying work and society and one is also constantly disappointing the once beloved pet. It really can be an act of "whelp if everyone is better of without me, then...", it can be an altruistic th…

I can feel so much pain from that description and I truly hope you are doing well mate!

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#83

Post by jezclaremurugan »

wallace_f wrote: post #62
a3n wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A really good first step can be your doctor, who can lay out options and resources. Think of them as a knowledgeable first responder. It worked for me.

Don't have a doctor. What kind of things were they able to suggest which was helpful?

May not be a popular advice - but try a church. If you have reservations about religion you can let them know, but more often than not - there is a welcoming community and in local church groups you'd find a bunch of folks who are willing to go an extra mile for someone else and most of them do really care.

Obvious disclaimer - do watch out that they do not end up exploiting your vulnerabilities - there are known cases where that unfortunately happens as predators are everywhere.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#84

Post by usrusr »

pjc50 wrote: post #77
chillwaves wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most obnoxious part about this comment is how sure you think you are. The important questions to ask are, how does the civilian population split? How do the police, the military split? What exactly do you think civil war looks like? The idea that you have all the answers and some how guns are ineffective, at the very least in hurting those who want to oppress, is so laughable and appropriate for HN. What is going…

> What is going on in HK right now? You think that would happen if they were armed? No, they'd be dead. Armed conflict with the PLA with no artillery or air power? (Street protest relies on some unspoken norms that police won't indiscriminately fire on and kill protestors, precisely because the protestors aren't armed. The whole point is to stop short of actual deadly urban combat. This is partly why Tianamen was so…

> it's clear that army units were sent in and simply murdered a large number of people who were carrying out an unarmed protest

Which is utterly puzzling because the technique of priming the slaughter with agents provocateurs amongst the protesters is neither new nor particularly difficult. Were the leaders involved just incredibly incompetent at tyranny or was there something else going on?

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#85

Post by snikeris »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #32
ColanR wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how you put "prevent tyranny" in quotes, like it's not believable.

It's not. The idea that a rag-tag group of citizens with a stockpile of AR-15s could challenge "tyranny" by fighting a modern US military is laughable.

Vietnam?

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#86

Post by haveacc »

rolltiide wrote: post #20

Is there any merit to the idea that health workers can help people and their family with being prepared for the suicide? I think we spend too much effort on avoidance without acknowledging that people come to a conclusion of ending their life for multiple reasons, and people aren't really falling for the prevention. Did the underlying irreconcilable problem get solved? No? Okay imma head out. Does the person have to…

Let's assume that the 90% statistic is right. That certainly seems to lessen the burden on families of suicidal people, but at what cost? This number doesn't tell us about the reason those people never attempted again. We all hear about the gruesomeness of deaths by suicide and the impact on relationships with family and friends. It is very likely that the toll an unsuccessful attempt takes on someone combined with observing the attempt fail makes people reconsider suicide as a solution to their problems. It is not likely that this correlates with resolving their problems in another way. If the problems are hard enough to solve or to live with, the total burden on everyone involved could be much higher after an unsuccessful attempt than after a successful one. Suicide prevention success should not be solely measured by suicide statistics, or by the mental health of family members. I think your idea is going in the right direction, which is to avoid thinking of suicide as the worst possible outcome, to consider the impact the worst living situations have compared to the cost of escaping them, and to potentially try to minimise both.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#87

Post by schwurb »

bloodorange wrote: post #82
schwurb wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can also be not entirely or to any degree selfish. Depending on the particular state one is in, the world can be like a place where one is only causing harm, no good. Friends and family suffer because of oneself, one is betraying work and society and one is also constantly disappointing the once beloved pet. It really can be an act of "whelp if everyone is better of without me, then...", it can be an altruistic th…

I can feel so much pain from that description and I truly hope you are doing well mate!

Thank you! It was absurdly much pain, esp. considering it started at age 9. It is not a place where I wish anybody, and I can't imagine I will ever suffer anything comparable. But good news: I decided to live (religion played and plays a role, with interesting implications on "Good God vs Suffering"), at 18, I felt like I have a fresh start, at 23 I got therapy, now at my mid-twenties I am able to deal with my episodes well, stopping most of them before they begin (comes down to stress management).

It was hell. But I enjoy my life now, and I learned many lessons in that time. My past is part of me and I can use even my past for good. I try to be a role model for the people that deal with depression around me (and maybe later academia). There is very good news for people with depression: Once one decides to get help, there is a lot of well-researched therapy (& medications if needed) around. Chances of recovery and depression management are high. And it is a field where great progress is made.

Thank you for you wishes! I can only encourage anyone with depression and similar problems to seek help - it does not bother the therapists and can improve life in ways not imaginable!

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#88

Post by schwurb »

wallace_f wrote: post #70
travisjungroth wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know of any catch all resource. Is this something going on right now, or in your past? If it’s right now, the focus will be on separating yourself from the problem. If it’s the past, then that’s recovery. If you send me an email (my last name at gmail) I could point you to some things that helped me and could apply to your situation.

It is hard to explain everything, but it started when I was a teenager and talked to people at my school about abuse at home. My father hired a team of lawyers after that and they cut a deal with child services which had me shipped off into the Troubled Teen Industry. There I experienced the start of this pattern of abuse and a cult of personality of put downs to me started. It sounds crazy, but I had some authoritie…

Hey there! I am sorry for what you have been through so far. Since I am to go soon, I will keep it short:

1) I heavily suggest going into counceling. The change of behaviour and self concept needed might be too much to manage on your own.

2) It is a unfortunate, but well-researched phenomenon that perpetuators go for a certain type of personality that expresses itself by way of talking an non-verbal communication. There is also such a thing as bad, bad luck, but social dynamics also play a role. This is an area where you can likely improve aswell: Recognizing your feelings, others feeling and actions, and what is okay and not okay for you,

Gotta go now, all the best tho! Your problems seem treatable to me, but it might take time. You can do this.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#89

Post by homonculus1 »

pietroglyph wrote: post #40
ColanR wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vietnam beat the US. The Taliban is beating the US. The US was founded when farmers used guerrilla warfare tactics against the current world superpower. South America guerrillas are unbeatable. It's really your position that is untenable.

I think that GP's position is tenable if the tyranny comes slowly. Sure, a country-wide armed insurgency is hard to beat. That's relatively uncontroversial. If most people are comfortable as the water boils around them, however, then the armed insurgency is not going to be country-wide. I think that argument has some basis in history (e.g. Nazi Germany), where the tyrannical government slowly got worse and worse with…

Banning firearms is the water boiling.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#90

Post by homonculus1 »

umvi wrote: post #22
majos wrote: post #12

One point about suicide prevention that I think deserves a little more mention: people who survive an attempt typically do not ever commit suicide [1]. Lifetime survival rates range across studies, but they hover around 90%. Of course, 10% is much higher than the general population rate for lifetime suicide completion rate, which is more like 0.01%, and things are complicated by severity of attempt (you’re more likel…

I've said it before, but really, assault rifles and bump stocks and what not are the complete wrong thing to focus on. Long guns kill practically _nobody_ compared to handguns. It's the best compromise ever: ban handguns, keep long guns fully legal. 2nd amendment supporters wanting to "prevent tyranny" and hunters still have their long guns, homicides and suicides (which comprise the overwhelming majority of gun deat…

Handguns are protected by 2A under Heller.

And as always with gun control demands, the notion of "compromise" is as slimy as looking for middle ground on abortion, or mass surveillance, or segregation. Compromising rights is a verb, not a noun.

Post reply on HN