Sanctioned Sucide is nothing like what the media says

[FireFox]

I first heard about Sanctioned Suicide after watching the BBC News documentary about Callie Lewis and reading the daily mail news article about the case of Shawn Shatto. The parents of these women were blaming the site for teaching their adult children how to kill themselves and demanded the site be shut down. Shawn's mother made accusations of the site members being evil and encouraging the daughter to kill herself.

I admit when the UK media said Callie brought a suicide kit from Sanctioned Suicide I came to Sanctioned suicide to see what kind of kits the site sells.

I was shocked to find no suicide kits and just a caring and non judgemental community. People here listened to me, tried to help me with my problems and never judged me when I opened up about the true scale of how depressed I am while people in my own life didn't want to listen and just dismissed everything I said. Family treated me like inconvenience for being depressed, my closet university friend in my law class when I was an undergraduate she began to avoid me when I told her was suicidal and a mental health support forum for depression supporters the older British women ganged up and builled me including the moderator. NHS was difficult to acess so I gave up.

In law we did learn that the media doesn't always give the full facts of the story. In the UK we had a sad case about a young woman called joanna Yates who was murdered by her neighbour who was obsessed with her. The UK media falsely accused her landlord Christopher Jeffries of killing her . The media published never ending stories about how he is a werid old man and he was hounded relentlessly. The man ended up sueing the press and got a lot of money. The press ruined his life in many ways.

The treatment of Sanctioned Suicide is an example of how the media doesn't always give the full story.

 

[Dot]

In law we did learn that the media doesn't always give the full facts of the story. In the UK we had a sad case about a young woman called joanna Yates who was murdered by her neighbour who was obsessed with her. The UK media falsely accused her landlord Christopher Jeffries of killing her . The media published never ending stories about how he is a werid old man and he was hounded relentlessly. The man ended up sueing the press and got a lot of money. The press ruined his life in many ways.

Slf remmbr ths cse v wll

The treatment of Sanctioned Suicide is an example of how the media doesn't always give the full story.

Thy r nt intrstd in th/ fll stry

Am gld tht u r gttng spport tho

SS hs helpd stp slf makng implsve attmpts snce slf dscovrd th/ ste & slf kp vistng th/ ste fr tht reasn

= mstly a gd cmmunty rgardlss of wht outsidrs thnk

 

[EternalLight]

I'm a new poster here, but I've been reading this forum for a little while, and I've never seen a single post that could be interpreted as encouraging suicide. Reading the threads here has been a comforting thing to me, not something that contributes to my troubles. I don't remember how I found this website, but there's no other place like it on the Internet, where a user can release all their emotion and say what's on their mind without judgement or being imprisoned against their will. There are people here from all parts of the world and walks of life; I've read so many stories that have enlightened me on such different experiences of life to my own, and I'm grateful for that.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I absolutely agree. I just think the press want sensationalism though because, that's what sells. Sometimes I wonder how much research they even bother to do before making their articles. I find it kind of unbelievable if I'm honest. I would have thought journalism was a vocation of sorts. Wouldn't they do extensive research beforehand? Isn't that their job? I think you'd need a real maverick to write in favour of this place though. I wonder if any of them fancy the backlash from protestors.

Maybe I wonder if I'm the one who's blinkered. Like- do they really not see the same thing I'm seeing? Ok- there is method information here. There are goodbye threads that aren't packed with platitudes, helpline numbers and people begging members not to do it. We are pro-choice certainly. We do like to make sure members have thoroughly thought about that choice though- I would say.

There's so much more than that though. So many occassions where we are offering one another support. In my experience, if there's any sign of a member still contemplating life choices rather than death ones, most members will nudge them in the direction of life.

One thing that has always stayed with me was a mother of someone who CTB after being a member here. You'd imagine she'd log on here to hate on everyone but, she didn't. She actually thanked everyone for giving her daughter some sense of comfort and community at the end. I thought she was so incredibly brave to do that.

Besides that, I wish they would put their focus on why people are so unhappy, they go looking for forums like this to begin with! Seeing as it's young people they seem to care the most about- I also wish they'd create a safer alternative to here where people can voice their issues honestly and receive support without hollow platitudes or heavy handed police welfare checks. In part, people do stay here for support I believe. If they'd prefer that support to be more upbeat and hopeful (without being insincere), they ought to do something about that and provide an alternative!

 

[LukaParrot]

I discovered recently and this community is great.... no judgment... great advices even to your own safety, best available information, people that can understand your pain.

And there is even a place to chill... "Off-topic"....

 

[steppenwolf]

I too am only here because of press reports about the site, and otherwise might never had known about it. In terms of the site's form, maintenance and moderation, I have found the site itself to be entirely objective and ambivalent, with the sole purpose of providing a forum for discussion on the subject of suicide, motivated by the fact that such a provision can only be helpful; people who are going to commit suicide are going to do so anyway, even if the site didn't exist and they had absolutely no one to safely discuss it with first.

However, I have found a lot of the posters themselves to be insufferable, and driven by a need to impress each other with their apparent commitment to suicide as a mark of their privilege, for the sake of fashionable first world problems that most people in the world are too poor to be concerned with, whilst not having any real problems of their own - like being homeless or a child soldier or a modern slave or suffering from intolerable physical pain that is only going to get worse - outside of their inability to engage with a world gone awry. And I often get pilloried here for saying so, with absolutely no consideration for what I might have been through or might be going through myself, or what such a backlash might push me to, all of which I keep quite to myself.

In particular, the discussion over methods of suicide, of what fashionable poisons to use when 'catching the bus' to use the hip-speak, and where to obtain them, that the media have picked up on and hold up in their reports damning the site, seems to me entirely superfluous. Whilst simply pinching off the carotid artery and cutting off the blood to the brain with a knotted necktie suspended from a coat hook will cause someone to black out painlessly enough in seconds, and then die in minutes, discussing the use of different exclusive poisons that most people can never access, can only be more about a bragging competition than about helping people to ctb peacefully. Superficially the discussion surrounding the mythical perfect 'suicide kit' appears to be the last extremity of a dangerous game played by a lot of horrible spoiled people, with no conception of the extent of their privilege or of how most of the rest of humanity is forced to live, whereby they each try to impress each other with their commitment to suicide as a fashion trend, and the extent of their privilege in being able to obtain access to poisons that the Government controls access to so tightly that most people have never even heard of them. A good pinch of the carotid with a necktie is the kindest way for most people. But if you have the privilege of a high-ranking Nazi, you could bite down on a cyanide capsule and take a deep breath, immediately before putting a 9mm Parabellum round through the roof of your mouth with a Luger. Those two strategies should between them contain the entirety of the discussion on suicide method; anything else is a discussion on suicide fashion #themostfashionablewaytodiein2025.

Finally, the irony of a media organ like the BBC, that apparently delights in indiscriminately disseminating depressingly bad news, worse news, still worse news, grave news, graver news, gravest news, as if to weed out those who can't cope with hearing it; condemning a suicide discussion forum in repeated news reports for supposedly promoting suicide, and thereby providing it with a cardinal source of free publicity; is not lost on me.

 

[Pluto]

 

[SilentSadness]

However, I have found a lot of the posters themselves to be insufferable, and driven by a need to impress each other with their apparent commitment to suicide as a mark of their privilege, for the sake of fashionable first world problems that most people in the world are too poor to be concerned with, whilst not having any real problems of their own - like being homeless or a child soldier or a modern slave or suffering from intolerable physical pain that is only going to get worse - outside of their inability to engage with a world gone awry. And I often get pilloried here for saying so, with absolutely no consideration for what I might have been through or might be going through myself, or what such a backlash might push me to, all of which I keep quite to myself.

In particular, the discussion over methods of suicide, of what fashionable poisons to use when 'catching the bus' to use the hip-speak, and where to obtain them, that the media have picked up on and hold up in their reports damning the site, seems to me entirely superfluous. Whilst simply pinching off the carotid artery and cutting off the blood to the brain with a knotted necktie suspended from a coat hook will cause someone to black out painlessly enough in seconds, and then die in minutes, discussing the use of different exclusive poisons that most people can never access, can only be more about a bragging competition than about helping people to ctb peacefully. Superficially the discussion surrounding the mythical perfect 'suicide kit' appears to be the last extremity of a dangerous game played by a lot of horrible spoiled people, with no conception of the extent of their privilege or of how most of the rest of humanity is forced to live, whereby they each try to impress each other with their commitment to suicide as a fashion trend, and the extent of their privilege in being able to obtain access to poisons that the Government controls access to so tightly that most people have never even heard of them. A good pinch of the carotid with a necktie is the kindest way for most people. But if you have the privilege of a high-ranking Nazi, you could bite down on a cyanide capsule and take a deep breath, immediately before putting a 9mm Parabellum round through the roof of your mouth with a Luger. Those two strategies should between them contain the entirety of the discussion on suicide method; anything else is a discussion on suicide fashion #themostfashionablewaytodiein2025.

This just comes across as needlessly cruel, you don't have to be a child soldier or a modern slave to suffer and to want to die. It's not a "fashion statement" to say that hanging is very unreliable and potentially very painful and that less then 1/20 suicide attempts are successful. There's no need to gatekeep, I don't know what it is with people thinking you need to be terminally ill or in "intolerable physical pain" to be eligible for suicide, some people just suffer regardless and they should be allowed to die. Not everyone's problems are visible and no one is "spoiled" for not wanting to risk a painful method, or even for not wanting to die.

 

[TennTrixie]

I found this site while researching the old fashioned way (Google) suicide methods. I have health problems that are not curable or treatable, so I am done with life. I do care about the impact it will have on my family, so I've been trying to find an "easy" way to do it that isn't violent and gory (gun - which as noted above, would be easy - I'm in the US with easy access to guns). The first lead was an article about suicide kits sold by Amazon, which of course, are no longer sold on Amazon. This article discussed suicide kits, PPH, SN, and the SaSu site. I hadn't heard of any of these things before finding that article. So, I agree that the media misleads about this site, but in the long run actually did me a favor by reporting on it so that I could find it. I've been here for several months now, and not once have I seen any posts by people encouraging or instructing anyone else.

 

[depressedinsomniac]

i also found the site googling info about methods and i quite like the community here. Frankly in the states society is all confusing. There are unhealthy foods that surround me. The hospitals just view me as a cash cow. Making money off of me for various things. Therapy. Medication. Pills. It's so hard to survive in this country. Everything is so expensive. Suicide should be an option. I should be able to choose when to give up instead of facing homelessness or the medical system. This is just me.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

However, I have found a lot of the posters themselves to be insufferable, and driven by a need to impress each other with their apparent commitment to suicide as a mark of their privilege, for the sake of fashionable first world problems that most people in the world are too poor to be concerned with, whilst not having any real problems of their own - like being homeless or a child soldier or a modern slave or suffering from intolerable physical pain that is only going to get worse - outside of their inability to engage with a world gone awry. And I often get pilloried here for saying so, with absolutely no consideration for what I might have been through or might be going through myself, or what such a backlash might push me to, all of which I keep quite to myself.

What exactly constitutes as a "real problem"? This type of bullshit rhetoric is not needed on here and is not appreciated. This is what leads to people feeling like their issues are invalid thus causing them to suffer more. You do not get to define what "real problems" are. Suffering is subjective and people have different thresholds when it comes to what they can handle in life. Nobody should have to go through slavery or being a child soldier in order for their issues to be seen as valid.

It's especially funny to see you, the dude who loves to play victim whenever anyone calls them out for being incredibly rude towards others, criticizing people for complaining about things that aren't "real problems". The only first-world problem I've seen on here was with that one dude who took issue with a new user, not because she did anything bad, but just because she was working to become a substance abuse counsellor.

 

[theshund]

Support for suicidal individuals in the UK is scandalous.

If you type suicide or any related terms into Google the first message you get is for the Samaritans. This is also the 'emergency' number you'll be given by almost every mental health professional.

The Samaritans is a charity helpline staffed by volunteers. Few are qualified. In most cases they defer you to a different helpline as quickly as they can, especially if your needs are more complex than you're just 'a bit sad and lonely'.

All resources they defer you to have limited opening hours so if you're suicidal and want talking down outside these hours (if it's the weekend for example) forget it.

An exception is the 24hr text service SHOUT. This was founded by the royal family as a 'charity'. You text them, they text back but no more than 160 words so they usually break their replies into two or three texts. They will reassure you that it's free for you to text them. What they won't tell you is you get charged for their replies. And you only need to read a handful of those replies before you quickly realise you're talking to an AI. Moreover, SHOUT is all about harvesting data, something the founders promised they would not do, then did and now stand to make a huge profit from doing.

Mental health helpline funded by royals shared users’ anonymised conversations

Experts have serious ethical concerns over Shout, a service backed by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

www.google.com

Then there's the NHS go to, who your doctor will refer you to, Talking Therapy run by VitaHealth. Now, the first thing you'll need to do is get the app where the dumbest AI in the world will attempt to triage you. Mention suicide once and the AI ends the assessment and defers you to the Samaritans or SHOUT. Pass the assessment and you get a phone assessment where you'll be asked the same exact questions by an Indian call centre who will also shut you down if you mention suicide. Talking Therapy, you see, is only for people who are a bit sad, not the mentally ill or suicidal. Those people get 'care in the community', aka nothing.

If you attempt suicide and seek medical help you'll come under the wings of the hospital mental health crisis team (for an hour or so) after which you'll be handed over to your local crisis team. This, finally, puts you in the hands of qualified professionals - psychiatric nurses. They will talk you through your problems and signpost you to further health for about six to ten sessions. You'll be given their number and the number for the Samaritans. Signposted help rarely includes therapy but might if you're very very lucky. Mostly you'll get a few more counselling sessions. I think this varies in different parts of the country. Most of the counsellors are student volunteers on work experience. Remember, this is all only available to you if you actually attempt suicide.

If you have money you can pay for private counselling. Good luck. Counselling isn't reliant on hefty qualification and the standard is so variable that you'll be rolling the dice. If you find one that works for you, great, but you'll spend a lot of money getting there I promise.

In the UK we have a welfare state which upholds that medical treatment should be freely available to all. In truth, unless you go private with a very expensive subscription service like BUPA, medical treatment is theoretically free but in the case of mental health, not fit for purpose.

If we consider that we are in the middle of a mental health epidemic crisis in the UK and that depression keeps people from leading functional lives, massively impacts the economy and that mental illness places a huge burden on infrastructure and can be correlated to both poverty and crime, it would seem to be a root issue worth tackling, particularly during a cost of living crisis.

But no. Let's put more money in the pockets of the royals and watch society throw itself off a bridge.