My response to VICE regarding an Upcoming Story including this Community

[hoping to lose hope]

welp this is scary will this make like news big time?
do people take Vice seriously since 2010 after they stopped making good content?
They became like buzz feed

 

[Symbiote]

VICE is what I consider as the online National Enquirer. They feed on sensationalism and rile their base up with emotions. Your responses are well thought out and meaningful, but the outside world unfortunately will twist and conspire against us that we are nothing but evil automatons bent on making the world dead like us. SS has been a haven for suicidal people and a bane for those who lost loved ones. There are other usergroups for suicidals to go to, but most are not as helpful as this one. People will always find a way out, at least SS provides a way out of the pain, but only by giving control back to the user.

A VICE article will definitely drive traffic to this site. Probably the wrong kind of traffic...I'll be vigilant.

 

[hoping to lose hope]

Just being able to relate to others while knowing they are not all using a facade of false positivity because it is enforced helped me a lot more than I thought it would.

 

[Kat!]

Ah, just did a checkup. Apparently, if this is the same site as before, VICE and a few other sources have already bashed this website, I'm going to assume the families of people who have frequented this place. There's a petition to remove "illegal site" quoting this as well.

 

[walktothewater]

Got to love how all these family members jump out of the woodwork. Obviously, they weren't around when the suicidal person was suicidal. They are probably feeling guilty. Families often cause suicides. The only reason I am on this website is because my family have made me suicidal.

They should stop bashing websites like this and examine their own guilty consciences. They never will, of course. They will fester in their false moral superiority, a cloak, a mantle they have adopted. Unfortunately for them, however, I see right through it.

 

[262653]

Finally, he said that the forum isn't as open and free as it claims because people can be called "pro-life" for discouraging others from their plans.

Oh my god I can't believe they noticed this too.

It was formulated as if "pro-life" is some kind of an insult or a form of freedom infringement.

 

[Ghost2211]

Thank you for sharing this with us. It was very interesting to read. Thank you for creating this site, and continuing to protect and provide this space for us to be able to communicate openly, and seek support as many of us wouldn't be able to in the outside world.

 

[muffin222]

Thank you for all you do.

This site has, without a doubt, saved my life. I planned to kill myself via carbon monoxide poisoning in April. I joined this site to gain more information about carbon monoxide and to connect with other suicidal people to commiserate before I died. I immediately felt a connection to the users of this forum. Through my research on here, I learned about sodium nitrite, swapped it in as my new method, and ordered some online.

It arrived in the mail in mid-April, and almost 8 months later I'm still here. Just having the SN in my closet, knowing that I have a method "out"- in addition to the support and understanding of the users on here who are in the same boat- has strengthened my spirit. I no longer feel a desperate need to kill myself like I used to since joining this forum.

I shifted from desperately obsessing over suicide every single day to slowly, but surely, regaining my will to live because I KNOW I have a doorway out should I decide to take it.

If this site were shut down, people like me would very likely be dead, or in a vegetative state in a coma somewhere due to failed attempts. As humans, almost of all of us wish we could squeeze complex, difficult, ugly, taboo human issues into neat little boxes, like "suicide forums are bad and need to be shut down" or "suicide forums encourage people to kill themselves", but, alas, life is seldom ever that cut and dry.

100%, without a doubt, I would be dead or in a coma right now on life support had I not discovered SanctionedSuicide.

I know I'm not the only one who shares this sentiment, either. Pro-lifers want to keep everyone alive, yet in their vain attempts to shut the site down and cut vulnerable people off from a valuable support system, they could very well be helping to shorten the lives of the very people they so ardently claim they want to "save".

Suicide is absurdly complex, and people are absurdly complex. It's never black and white with these delicate issues of life and death. This community saved my life

 

[thisismyusername]

A VICE article will definitely drive traffic to this site. Probably the wrong kind of traffic...I'll be vigilant.

I think this is what we all need to look out for. I don't want to lose this community to people who can't seem to understand the point of it all. Some things are just too important to protect. This site brings autonomy, not encouragement of suicide, and I think that's gonna be muddied by poor journalism and virality.

 

[Despondent]

Well said. The mods and co-founders here handle what those from outside of the community have to say really well. This might sound cheesy but I'm proud of them and this community's lucky to have them

Thank you for all that you do here

Edit: this site has really helped me. Before I had found it, there were so many times that I was going to do something in the heat of the moment. I'm not sure if I'll ever end my life, but there's a chance that I might not and it's because of this place. SS screams pro-choice.

 

[Rn110bg101]

Aren't Vice the same people who covered up sexual harassment allegations within their company?

Regardless, another day, another story from pro-lifers.

 

[_Kaira_]

Still baffles me people can throw the word 'evil' at this site so easily.

Who is more evil? Compassionate, usually empathetic people, whose suffering might be akin to mine? Or a society that doesn't do justice to those who deserve it, and instead want to lock up, load up on pills, and silence the cries of people who only wish to be heard? Because we are claimed to be "sick and in need of help" our thoughts and desires warped, thus invalid?

My therapist is great. I know she tries, and may genuinely care. But I don't feel like I can speak myself freely, cause if I did, she would have to call 911 on me if I was 100% transparent about how I think and feel. I laugh and throw on a clown show, just so she thinks I'm not always on the edge. How messed up is that? Some people who claim they are there to help you, aren't really, because then you get thrown into a sh*t cycle in the health care system!

Along with that, there's days where I really really REALLY want to hurt myself. Usually after a really bad argument. I come here and I'm able to talk about it, and how it makes me feel. My therapist would tell me "Is there anything you could have done so they would not have reacted that way towards you?"

My medications are starting to make me sick. Not that they helped much when I was on only a couple and lower dosages...but still. Therapy and medication can only do so much for people, and quite frankly, I need so much more than that if I were to not CTB. With that said, I am thankful for the people here who unconditionally support me, and it's always hard to watch people leave. None of us get a kick out of watching people feel like they're being forced out of life!

Those who dare say this site should be shut down, have no idea how much that would hurt people in the long run. All you're doing is making it harder for people to peacefully end their suffering, and make them try even harder, potentially making their lives EVEN WORSE. Suicidal people will always find a way if they are 100% set on their decision...and shutting down a support forum will not stop that....

I can't imagine how many people would be driven faster to that decision without SS. It's so insane people think this is an 'evil' website. Bury your heads in the sand some more, pro-lifers. I bet it's comfy down there...


Thank you so much mods for helping create an environment for the misunderstood and those suffering

 

[GoneGoneGone]

Thank you @Marquis . I would have suggested some edits but I think they're trivial. If you still had space and haven't sent your responses yet I wish you emphasized the physical violence or abuse that we experience in wards once we say we are suicidal... Thank you for doing this for us. Vice.. bleah

 

[BridgeJumper]

They like to pretend that they care about us, but in reality they dont give a damn whether were alive or not, they are 'saving' us because this equals tax money, and because it makes them feel good about themselves. 'Look, Ive done the right thing'.
I have a debilitating chronic condition that I cant seek help for because Im being repeatedly gaslighted, BECAUSE professionals believe its in my head due to my mental health record. My family is abusive and my best friend drank sn last year. In the last 11 months, I have talked to maybe 2 people, and Im in constant physical and mental pain. I want to pay a hooker just to have somebody hug me.
Their response? You jumped off a bridge, we will now egg you on and tell you you need to kill yourself (literally!), lock you in a dirty hospital for 3 months and put you on 17 pills a day until youre so numb you cant express emotion? Because this is totally going to cure me? Newsflash, it isnt. All that behaviour is causing me to just shut down, quit talking about it, attempt in secret, avoid mental help out of trauma. Smug psychiatrists make me have homicidal thoughts upon interacting with them. Im bitter and pissed and heartbroken, and theyre zero help. Null

But 'Aaaaa, evil suicide website!' Sure.

 

[MichaelNomad123]

I have mixed feelings about this place. I personally cringe when I see the narrative of "pro-life vs. pro-choice". I believe that just devolves the complexity of this grey to simple identity politics which is not something that I care for or engage with in any meaningful way due to its entry-level explanation for something that actually has a lot of depth. I expect a VICE article will seize on this aspect and run with that as a main component of this forum. That will be a real shame to read, but no different than a lot of journalism on the internet. You take it with a pinch of salt.

Putting that aside for a moment, I can say that I take some positives from this place. I have been spending a lot of time talking inanely in the chat function whereas I would otherwise be going quite mad from insomnia and depression. My life circumstances are such that I very much welcome a distraction right now. Why here and not some other place? I feel as if there are users here that understand my struggle. That is not something that I have had before. I have described it as a shadow that follows me. It is a taint on my soul. Perhaps that is too poetic and it is simply just an inability to deal with the world -- a lack of tools to cope. Whatever it is, I see folks here that are chugging along at a snails pace like me. Since one of my main issues in life is loneliness, you might imagine how refreshing it is to find a community of equally damned individuals.

I have also spoken at length with some users that have been on the fence as to their choices. I would like to claim that I have imparted some of my limited wisdom on them and helped them explore their options more fully so that they can make an informed decision as to their fate. I feel good about that, but in a human way, rather than a god complex. Many people are just simply not aware of their options. They feel stuck, alone and confused. They search for an escape and a lot of the time it is suicide. While I respect a persons choice to do as they wish, I always want that to be with the full picture. This is where I feel this place falls victim to scrutiny. However simultaneously I don't feel as if it is the forums responsibility to parent its users.

It just is what it is. I resent the suicide culture but I also adore the few that help lost souls find a path and understand a bigger picture. In a way, it is much like the rest of life. There is a balance. There are villains (and there are villains here -- make no mistake) and there are heroes. For some, it isn't enough to simply talk with another person. You need that person to understand. You need your listener to relate. That just simply is not possible with the vast majority of counselling services. Here, it is. That seems like a really good thing to me. Ultimately, if society worked as it should, this place would not exist. Mental health help has to improve through funding and applied research within the next 10 years, because right now it is not performing anywhere near the level it needs to.

For now, this place remains within the law of most countries. I don't expect that to always be the case, particularly with the US. It's an interesting relic and something that I appreciate in many ways. I don't think a public article on this place will help matters, especially with a big organization shining a light on this dark corner of the internet. We'll see, I suppose. These are my thoughts. Take them for what they're worth.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Excellent responses Marquis, and thank you for sharing. Vice, being what it is i.e.: a main stream media channel with its own agenda will no doubt take this interview, chew it up and barf it out with every intent to make ss look bad.

I was wondering if it may help (and it may not) that you might want to publish a transcript of the interview publicly so the mainstream web viewers can read exactly how the interview went, with your responses and their questions as you had answered it, as opposed to the altered version Vice will put out.

Will the Vice interview be published on their site as text, or will they do a video?

 

[Nature_is_God]

Bless you @Marquis. No way I could take the pressure of having my name tied to a place as taboo as this one.

 

[AllReturnsToNothing]

People will write think-pieces like this jerking themselves off to other peoples suffering, just bathing in the warm sugary ichor of the serotonin produced in the bulbous brains of these egotistical egg-headed buffoons, all the while completely ignoring the circumstances that led to such a community developing naturally. Ignoring all systemic crises in place; economic, political, environmental, societal, cultural, racial, international, etc.; and just slapping a huge red sticker labeled "BAD" on top of it. But hey, what do you expect from a society that would rather incarcerate it's struggling populous en masse exploiting their suffering by using them for dirt-cheap slave labor (all the while refusing to attempt to rehabilitate them in any way shape or form just so they can leave the prisons in 20-or-so years only to fall on hard times, and come right back to incarcerated slavery again). Because nobody in this goddamn poor excuse for a society can do any simple dialectical analysis. And those that DO do the analysis are shunned. Ostracized. Driven to suicide in some cases.

And lookie there, we're right back to where we started! Nothing, ventured, and nothing gained. Nothing learned, it all stays the same. "And why should it change-" the rich man will say, "when it all works just so well!" As the oroboros eats it tail, and as Sisyphus bound to Hell.

 

[Disappointered]

As several members have already pointed out, "helping" people through failed pain or mental health management systems to keep people alive who will only continue suffering is not real help. This website and what it advocates for is the closest thing to real help that exists. Those who oppose it and refuse to facilitate a culture and system that permits people in pain to find peace are abusive hypocrites. This is even more true in the case of opposing suicide for people suffering from mental illness. Anti-suicide activists are part of the same social order that objectively places certain people in the position of having no prospects for happiness or ever being truly liked and respected but then they have a problem with those people committing suicide. They drive a certain proportion of the population toward misery by disrespecting those who failed in the game of life and then they have the sadistic gall to frustrate their victims' pursuit of final peace. But they can't have it both ways. The fact is that they can't be truly inclusive since it's against human nature. So the least they could do is make early departure from the game of life easy to achieve and the more they might find themselves reacting negatively to this post the more they should ask themselves why they insist on keeping someone who they don't like alive when that person is offering to resolve the situation by suicide. They will have no right to complain when more and more miserable people start going on rampages in the future.

 

[Deleted member 23374]

Some people need
a cliff to scream from
a simple comfort
along a treacherous path

when the poison
is indistinguishable from the ink
that can be dangerous
this is also true

it's not inhumane for
compatible minds to coalesce
and form a body
yes, no , maybe ?

 

[Quinlor]

I think you should had focused on the free speech idea, because it's clearly obvious for me that is impossible control what everyone in SS post...
And yes many here says nonsense sometimes

 

[woxihuanni]

The moment these people campaign to pass a law for putting abusers on a registry and court-ordering them to inpatient treatment until they learn to manage their antisocial tendencies instead of locking the abused up if they come to the point of suicide, is the moment I will be really surprised. Wanna prevent suicide? Here is one great way. Surprise me.

 

[Fedrea]

People Are Awful at Suicide

In general, failing at death is worse than failing at life. If you shoot yourself through the head at the wrong angle you end up retarded. Jump from one floor too low and you're paralyzed for life. One mouthful short of bleach and you’ll have to wait...

www.vice.com

I remember this incredibly compassionate article from VICE on suicide, from a few years ago, supposedly by a doctor. Bloody hypocrites.

"People are awful at killing themselves. You would think that once you set your mind to self-destruction, it would be fairly straightforward—but the majority of people fail. In fact, ten to 20 million people fail to kill themselves worldwide every year. That's a lot of wasted hospital time. For that reason, you won't get much sympathy from the medical profession if you come in having munched your way through a box of Feminax and a bottle of Peach Schnapps after your boyfriend's dumped you"

"In general, failing at death is worse than failing at life"

"There is also the crying-out-for-attention nutcase contingent"

 

[BridgeJumper]

People Are Awful at Suicide

In general, failing at death is worse than failing at life. If you shoot yourself through the head at the wrong angle you end up retarded. Jump from one floor too low and you're paralyzed for life. One mouthful short of bleach and you’ll have to wait...

www.vice.com

I remember this incredibly compassionate article from VICE on suicide, from a few years ago, supposedly by a doctor. Bloody hypocrites.

"People are awful at killing themselves. You would think that once you set your mind to self-destruction, it would be fairly straightforward—but the majority of people fail. In fact, ten to 20 million people fail to kill themselves worldwide every year. That's a lot of wasted hospital time. For that reason, you won't get much sympathy from the medical profession if you come in having munched your way through a box of Feminax and a bottle of Peach Schnapps after your boyfriend's dumped you"

"In general, failing at death is worse than failing at life"

"There is also the crying-out-for-attention nutcase contingent"

What the everliving fuck
BUUURN

 

[eve2004]

My therapist had a massive explosion and dumped me because he thought I was on the verge of suicide and blamed me for a whole laundry list of things he himself encouraged me to do. This was the day the global pandemic was announced.

Therapists do not want to work with suicidal people, and they have this illusion that you can walk in mourning a death of a loved one but never yourself become suicidal... what they are "screening" for is the likelihood that you are suicidal and if they think you are, they pass the buck... Next....!

I later confronted my therapist who STILL did not think they had done anything wrong. Even ny doctor admitted to me that the therapist had fucked me up badly.

 

[MiepMoop]

Thanks for this post and your transparency!
I'm curious how the story will turn out.

 

[Niftypoint124]

Oh VICE - a company that underpays their employees, has reckless sexual harassment problems, fucks over foreign fixers, and was started to fleece money of of Canadian art/culture grants from a bunch of shitheads! My least fave.

Thanks for all the Mod team does around here; this website has done more good than theirs, I have no doubt.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

People will write think-pieces like this jerking themselves off to other peoples suffering, just bathing in the warm sugary ichor of the serotonin produced in the bulbous brains of these egotistical egg-headed buffoons, all the while completely ignoring the circumstances that led to such a community developing naturally. Ignoring all systemic crises in place; economic, political, environmental, societal, cultural, racial, international, etc.; and just slapping a huge red sticker labeled "BAD" on top of it. But hey, what do you expect from a society that would rather incarcerate it's struggling populous en masse exploiting their suffering by using them for dirt-cheap slave labor (all the while refusing to attempt to rehabilitate them in any way shape or form just so they can leave the prisons in 20-or-so years only to fall on hard times, and come right back to incarcerated slavery again). Because nobody in this goddamn poor excuse for a society can do any simple dialectical analysis. And those that DO do the analysis are shunned. Ostracized. Driven to suicide in some cases.

And lookie there, we're right back to where we started! Nothing, ventured, and nothing gained. Nothing learned, it all stays the same. "And why should it change-" the rich man will say, "when it all works just so well!" As the oroboros eats it tail, and as Sisyphus bound to Hell.

I have such an intellectual writer crush on you right now. You had me at warm sugary ichor.

This post just does it for me. I know I'm moving way too fast, but I'm thinking about asking it to move in with me. Okay, maybe just taking an ichor-free bath with me and we'll see where things go. I'm pretty sure it will scrub my back, clean off the dried and crusted blood from the thousand little pinpricks and outright stabs.

 

[262653]

People Are Awful at Suicide

In general, failing at death is worse than failing at life. If you shoot yourself through the head at the wrong angle you end up retarded. Jump from one floor too low and you're paralyzed for life. One mouthful short of bleach and you’ll have to wait...

www.vice.com

I remember this incredibly compassionate article from VICE on suicide, from a few years ago, supposedly by a doctor. Bloody hypocrites.

Damn, I don't know what to say... Spiteful as life itself.

 

[Anonymoussn]

The attitude that the media has on suicide reminds me of the way attitudes were towards drug use in the 80's and 90's, and to a certain degree, still today. The whole 'Just Say No' campaign was built around the idea that drugs were bad and dangerous, and that if you ever went near them, you were bad too. How long until someone growing up hearing that tries weed for the first time and realises it's all bullshit?

The problem is when people eventually become disillusioned from that school of thought, they often don't know the dangers, and don't have all of the facts available to them. And it's exactly the same with suicide. How many members do we get on here asking how many paracetamol/tylenol pills will kill them? How many members have even tried something like that before they found this forum?

If we stopped making suicide this taboo subject, and actually spoke about it, perhaps we might reduce dangerous things like overdoses, cutting, and people aimlessly destroying their bodies and minds. I'm not asking the media to tell everyone about SN, or CO poisoning. I'm just asking them to cut the bullshit so that we can move past the panic and have open discussion about it rather than trying to mollycoddle everyone into blissful forgetfulness about their suicidal thoughts.