Doing a research paper outline on suicide and whether or not the media should cover suicide stories.
And as the material made evident, suicide is a touchy subject. To talk about it, or to not talk about it. Talking about it can lead to copycat deaths. Not talking about it won't solve the problem, even if you pretend such an issue doesn't exist, it lives on. And people who joke around about this stuff. It's annoying. Why would people say something so carelessly like they'll kill themself when they don't understand that saying something like that, so leisurely, can actually lead to someone really killing themself. People who think they understand don't, and people who understand don't think others understand. In the end, it's hard to even talk about our feelings because we don't understand each other and we don't understand ourselves. And people who don't understand that they can't just tell people to go die because people will go die. It's hard to talk to people about suicide and it's hard to help others out of suicide. Feeling like you nearly killed someone isn't pleasant. So carelessly. So ignorantly. It's scary to know, for sure, you made someone think about dying that day. I never want to go back and relive.
Bear the murder weapon with your hand on the blade without cutting yourself.
"This is my third column in a week touching on the subject. Pray there is no blood on my hands." (Egan)
"32,439 suicides--double the number of murder victims. . . . (While you're at it, consider that 42,636 people died that year in car crashes and 41,000 from breast cancer--and look at the mammoth publicity given both to road safety and preventive checkups.) Plus, who know how reliable those totals are. How many deliberate overdoses by dying people are classified as mishaps, how many single-vehicle 'accidents' aren't accidental, how much self-destructive behavior is ignored or misrepresented? True, suicide is a private act, an expression of despair or anger, resignation or defiance. But taken in the aggregate, suicide is also a public health reality of vast social importance." (Wasserman)
"Suicide rarely occurs in a vacuum. Although the act itself may be impulsive, people who kill themselves usually have considered or tried it before. As many as 90% of suicide victims have diagnosable and treatable mental disorder, such as major depression and alcohol or drug abuse." (Adams)
"South Wales Echo had run the headline: 'Why are so many of our youngsters killing themselves?' . . . In on notorious case in 1999, a report of a suicide gave too much detail of the chemical cocktail that was used, and in the ensuing month nine people tried to kill themselves by drinking similar mixtures. . . . Most reporters will tell you that almost everybody who is associated in any way with a suicide never wants the story to be reported. It is horrible, and reading about it through the inevitably distorting lens of journalism only makes it worse. From that angle it can be hard to believe that anything is gained." (Cathcart)
"Bryce Mackie, a 21-year-old student at Columbia College in Chicago, knows all about that. In high school, he made a film about his own experience with bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts. He first showed the film to his parents and teachers and ended up getting help, and now speaks to other young people across the country about his experience. 'I'll have seven or eight kids after a speech come up to me and, for most of them, this is the first time they've talked about it,' says Mackie, whose film 'Eternal High' has won awards for helping stigmatize mental illness. 'They had no clue that anyone else felt that way,' he adds. 'And even if they did, their teachers weren't talking about it. Their friends weren't talking about it.' . . . Jamie Tworkowski, 29, was inspired to action by a suicidal friend who told him she was cutting herself and using drugs. A story he wrote about her ultimately helped save her life and resulting in a Florida-based nonprofit called To Write Love On Her Arms. . . .Tworkowski posted the story about his friend on the MySpace social networking site in 2006 and sold T-shirts to raise money for her treatment. After another friend who played in a band wore one of the shirts during a performance, he says he received more than 100 online messages, many from young people who said they were depressed or suicidal. Now his organization, which has eight full-time staffers and five volunteer interns, uses social networking to put people suffering from depression in contact with professionals. 'It made me realize, OK if a hundred people respond this way, why wouldn't 100,000 or even a million respond whit way?' Tworkowski says. 'There was this need to talk about it.'" (Irvine)
And as the material made evident, suicide is a touchy subject. To talk about it, or to not talk about it. Talking about it can lead to copycat deaths. Not talking about it won't solve the problem, even if you pretend such an issue doesn't exist, it lives on. And people who joke around about this stuff. It's annoying. Why would people say something so carelessly like they'll kill themself when they don't understand that saying something like that, so leisurely, can actually lead to someone really killing themself. People who think they understand don't, and people who understand don't think others understand. In the end, it's hard to even talk about our feelings because we don't understand each other and we don't understand ourselves. And people who don't understand that they can't just tell people to go die because people will go die. It's hard to talk to people about suicide and it's hard to help others out of suicide. Feeling like you nearly killed someone isn't pleasant. So carelessly. So ignorantly. It's scary to know, for sure, you made someone think about dying that day. I never want to go back and relive.
Bear the murder weapon with your hand on the blade without cutting yourself.
"This is my third column in a week touching on the subject. Pray there is no blood on my hands." (Egan)
"32,439 suicides--double the number of murder victims. . . . (While you're at it, consider that 42,636 people died that year in car crashes and 41,000 from breast cancer--and look at the mammoth publicity given both to road safety and preventive checkups.) Plus, who know how reliable those totals are. How many deliberate overdoses by dying people are classified as mishaps, how many single-vehicle 'accidents' aren't accidental, how much self-destructive behavior is ignored or misrepresented? True, suicide is a private act, an expression of despair or anger, resignation or defiance. But taken in the aggregate, suicide is also a public health reality of vast social importance." (Wasserman)
"Suicide rarely occurs in a vacuum. Although the act itself may be impulsive, people who kill themselves usually have considered or tried it before. As many as 90% of suicide victims have diagnosable and treatable mental disorder, such as major depression and alcohol or drug abuse." (Adams)
"South Wales Echo had run the headline: 'Why are so many of our youngsters killing themselves?' . . . In on notorious case in 1999, a report of a suicide gave too much detail of the chemical cocktail that was used, and in the ensuing month nine people tried to kill themselves by drinking similar mixtures. . . . Most reporters will tell you that almost everybody who is associated in any way with a suicide never wants the story to be reported. It is horrible, and reading about it through the inevitably distorting lens of journalism only makes it worse. From that angle it can be hard to believe that anything is gained." (Cathcart)
"Bryce Mackie, a 21-year-old student at Columbia College in Chicago, knows all about that. In high school, he made a film about his own experience with bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts. He first showed the film to his parents and teachers and ended up getting help, and now speaks to other young people across the country about his experience. 'I'll have seven or eight kids after a speech come up to me and, for most of them, this is the first time they've talked about it,' says Mackie, whose film 'Eternal High' has won awards for helping stigmatize mental illness. 'They had no clue that anyone else felt that way,' he adds. 'And even if they did, their teachers weren't talking about it. Their friends weren't talking about it.' . . . Jamie Tworkowski, 29, was inspired to action by a suicidal friend who told him she was cutting herself and using drugs. A story he wrote about her ultimately helped save her life and resulting in a Florida-based nonprofit called To Write Love On Her Arms. . . .Tworkowski posted the story about his friend on the MySpace social networking site in 2006 and sold T-shirts to raise money for her treatment. After another friend who played in a band wore one of the shirts during a performance, he says he received more than 100 online messages, many from young people who said they were depressed or suicidal. Now his organization, which has eight full-time staffers and five volunteer interns, uses social networking to put people suffering from depression in contact with professionals. 'It made me realize, OK if a hundred people respond this way, why wouldn't 100,000 or even a million respond whit way?' Tworkowski says. 'There was this need to talk about it.'" (Irvine)
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