Discussion Did anyone else have big misconceptions of this site before joining?

[qualityOV3Rquantity]

I first heard of this site in a news story, and of course got the impression that this was some evil pro-suicide website, where everyone is either a) impressionable teenagers with depression, or b) predatory psychopaths who try to get these teenagers to kill themselves.

I came to browse here out of sheer morbid curiosity, since I've always been interested in dark stuff and am also quite depressed myself. I quickly discovered the media totally misrepresents this site, and that SaSu clearly isn't pro-suicide at all, but rather is pro-choice about the matter. And I haven't seen anyone ever pressure anyone else to commit suicide, not even the slightest bit.

Did anyone else have a similar experience when first joining this community?

 

[WhatMightHaveBeen]

Yes, the NYT really had an agenda in painting thi a site as some evil place. I discovered it's the only place that lets me talk freely about all the stuff surrounding my desperate situation involving addiction and suicide.

 

[WhiteRabbit]

I had heard of SS but I was hesitant and waited months to join the site because back then it was run by incels.

 

[HereTomorrow]

Yup. Thought it was pro suicide and people joined to encourage people to die from that One YouTube Video and held that belief until I actually wanted to make an account.

I know it's easy to just search "Suicide forum" on a search engine for the name but it took me a few months of Reddit forums before someone said Sanctioned Suicide. Visited here quite a few times before making an account. I've only seen one case of someone encouraging suicide here (particularly egging and persuading a member to attempt), and they were swiftly banned by the moderators.

 

[wCvML2]

Never heard of or read on the site before finding it on an internet search for suicide methods so I didn't have any expectations, I was just worried that the information on the forum might not be accurate since there is no way to confirm any of it and it's an open forum so anyone can write anything, like the rest of the internet.

 

[amnesia999]

Like several others, I was very depressed and came across that infamous NYT article while trying to find out how much of various psych meds I had to take to CTB. Since the NYT article didn't link to SaSu, it took just a bit more searching, and soon I was reading the Peaceful Pill Handbook.

What I wasn't expecting was how compassionate a lot of people on this board are to others who are in pain. (And I wasn't expecting for so many young people, people in their 20s, to be looking for ways to CTB.)

 

[sancta-simplicitas]

I joined because I had read that people here coerce you into CTB and I really wanted to die but couldn't get over the SI threshold. So I figured I'd try to be coerced as a last resort type of thing. Since joining I want to die substantially less, so that didn't go as planned hehe.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Actually, more the reverse. I found it via the NYT article also but from the start, I was excited to hear about it. Finally a place that provided method information- that was what I'd wanted for years. It was even more of a bonus when I came here and saw the conversations going on here. I signed up straight away. It was finally a place that seemed open to discussing the really big subjects in life.

So, I could hopefully research a more reliable and peaceful(ish) way out of this for when the time comes. (I feel like I need to wait till my Dad passes first.) And in the meantime, there are interesting things here to discuss to distract us and I think we are a very supportive community- in terms of recovery and end of life support effectively.

I agree though, it still kind of surprises me how kind and patient the majority of people are here. Considering what people are going through, considering how controversial the subjects are, comparitively, I don't think we get quite so many immature arseholes as you see on other platforms! Kind of surprising really when the subject could be considered extremist- sanctioning suicide yet, I wouldn't say many of the members are. Even those with the strongest views are usually still fairly open to discussion or at least will respect that others have different views- mostly.

But then, I also feel like the majority of people here fall into the bullied or persecuted category rather than being bullies quite so much. I think it's easier to empathise with others when you are suffering yourself.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

No, I didn't believe the pro life propaganda. I knew that this site would be pro choice

 

[Downdraft]

I had heard of SS but I was hesitant and waited months to join the site because back then it was run by incels.

This. Can't stress enough how much of a problem the previous owners were.

I discovered this place before the subreddit died, going down an internet rabbit hole. But back then the forum was so bad I wanted nothing to do with it.

My image of it was so low that when Tantacrul made his video it made perfect sense to me based on my memories lol.

 

[ForgottenAgain]

I didn't know anything about this site prior to finding it. I stumbled upon it by researching for suicide methods and noticing that the page about it on Lost All Hope had been deleted.

When I browsed the forum as a guest, my first impressions were of shock and sadness. I felt like I had entered a building where people come to die and, even though that made sense, I cried quite a lot reading GBTs. After that initial shock was gone, I found the community extremely caring and intelligent. The people here have so much more emotional intelligence than psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, it's insane.

 

[qualityOV3Rquantity]

I joined because I had read that people here coerce you into CTB and I really wanted to die but couldn't get over the SI threshold. So I figured I'd try to be coerced as a last resort type of thing. Since joining I want to die substantially less, so that didn't go as planned hehe.

Similar with me. I came here and made an account and thought, wait a second, where are all the people who are supposed to tell me to kill myself? Why aren't people pressuring me to commit suicide?

 

[notwhereIbelong]

I found this site from the one infamous video, except that I didn't even finish watching it, as soon as I heard of the existence of a suicide forum I immediately went looking for it, and here I am. I only watched that video in its entirety some time after joining here, so what was said about the site pretty much came to me as bullshit, since it was so different from my experience here

 

[NegevChina]

I was carefully looking for details on the CO method and stumbled upon this site. Was very cautious about it and suspicious, but finally made an account. I log on any chance I have ever since. I keep finding information and understand it saved me from attempting and surely failing.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

Well I thought it would mostly be about death. But then we started doing all this goofing off in offtopic and I forgot about dying.

 

[sevennn]

reality sometimes is very boring

 

[bitofftoomuch]

no, it was (mostly) what I expected. I worked briefly in media. I study propaganda and storytelling and could tell how the NYT was framing things. I deduced this would be a place of suicidal people including a few experts in methods. When you understand the storytelling devices people are using, it's easy to see for instance that a guy like Stan was just a normal human doing what he thought was right, not some mustache-twirling villain.

Plus, I've known enough suicidal people to know that it's a total myth the way people think we are aggressive -- most suicidal people are if anything gentler than the average human. We may be a "danger" to ourselves but not to anyone else.

 

[jjt82]

It's not what I expected either. I thought it was going to be people pushing you to do 'it'. Yet to have any interactions with people on here but everything I read is nothing but heart warming and understanding. Hoping to be hear a while.