Discussion Contagious suicide: monkey see monkey die

[unoriginal]

When trying to curtail our freedom to discuss methods and feelings related to catching the bus hard-line pro-lifers often cite, in justification, "suicide-epidemics" and suicide contagion - highly publicized accounts of suicides appear to increase the rates of suicides in the following weeks.

And these "copycat" suicides seem to be excess deaths - in the following months suicides return to usual not diminidhed levels. Which means that it's not people who would have killed themselves anyway just spurred to go earlier than planned, it's people who would have otherwise gone on on living. This fact spawns the narrative of disturbed confused individuals suddenly up and offing themselves because of this mysterious suicide bug tragically infecting them through their news-feeds and tv reports. I used to be under the sway of this argument, but not anymore. There's no way a person perfectly content with life would abruptly decide to ctb because someone on the news did it.

But you know who would?

People like me. People stuck in torturous limbo of indecision, who would otherwise have eked out pathetic miserable lives, unable to break the life-addiction. Being suicidal for so long has made me realize just how important social approval and solidarity are. Just how desperate and visceral my need for support and sanction is. That something as insignificant as someone demographically similar and geographically close to me doing the deed could be the push that I need. Hell, I think someone just holding my hand and telling me it's alright would be enough.

And I'm not ashamed of it. We've evolved to be social. Despite not wanting to admit it, all of our decision are influenced by others, even the most important ones. How we dress, what occupations we pick, who we love and hate. So why not the amount of life-shittiness we're willing to put up with, too?

 

[Justanotherconsumer]

Yes, for instance suicide by a parent puts the kids x5 at risk. Famous and rich people suicide makes people think about there own comparatively pathetic life, like why the hell am i sticking around if a famously rich guy doesent. Linkin park guy comes to mind when his friend chris cornell suicided.

 

[bbq1]

Yep, it's a thing.
And the chances are people on this group will die because other people on this group have died and let it be known.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...ide-in-japan/65564F984EBBD487B9A0A7B1556E2025

 

[samhelloall9]

Yes, for instance.... Famous and rich people suicide makes people think about there own comparatively pathetic life, like why the hell am i sticking around if a famously rich guy doesent.

I'm mainly for this part. Fist bump.

 

[Sayo]

I believe the impact of method is probably not rated as fully as it should be in studying this. I recognise that I am very biased about this, though.

I do think it possibly triggers impulsive people, suicidal clusters etc. etc. and that the similarities in methods have been in large part due to mimicking. But I also believe that a lot of these people are in essence also just copying the method to get the result. (I have observed trends on SS too) After all, the people who are considered at-risk for copycat suicides are overwhelmingly people who are already highly at risk for suicide in the first place. And methods often do show long-term trends. This is one thing that's particularly prominent in celebrity suicides vs. anonymous suicides.

I'm not 100% on the idea of copycat suicides (vs. copycat suicidal ideation) being the soundest concept, but I do think that is in huge part due to the different coverage different suicides receive. I'd like to have read more studies about this angle though.