Scientists say suicide forums are no death cults (FUCK YOU LYING MEDIA)

[noname223]

I just read a German article about SS. It made me really mad. Smearing this website. Calling us a death cult. They did not have any creativity. It was the same narrative, framing and dramatizing as the NYT article.
So I searched once again for an empirical study about the harm of suicide forums. I don't find any on English. There are way more in German. I am lucky the abstract is also in English.

https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10.1026/1616-3443.35.1.30

Abstract.Theoretical background: In clinical circles, the evaluation of risks and/or benefits of internet message boards, in which users discuss their suicidal thoughts, has been found to be very inhomogeneous. The majority opinion is that such message boards are extremely harmful, and in the extreme some people are demanding government measures to close such boards. Method: To face speculative assumptions about the functions of "suicide boards" with empirical evidence, a study of a German message board for suicidal persons was conducted via online questionnaire (N = 164; of those 50% male and 50% female; 88% ≤ 30 years old). Results: Three user types were identified ("constructively seeking help," "ambivalently seeking help," "unspecifically motivated"), which differ with a high effect strength to a great extent regarding their motivation for visiting such a message board, as well as in clinically relevant effects of their usage of the message board.

! Conclusions: Overall, the results obtained contradict the assumption that suicide related message boards in general are potentialy harmful. !

! Schlussfolgerungen: In ihrer Gesamtheit widersprechen die vorliegenden Ergebnisse deutlich der Annahme, "Suizid-Foren" im Internet stellten pauschal ein Gefährdungspotenzial dar. !

I am sorry I cannot give more details. The whole version costs 20 bucks. Neither do I have the money for that nor do I want to spend the money for that.
It is a fucking joke how media demonizes suicide forums. The media takes only individual dramatic cases. I feel so validated that you just write garbage for making a sensational story. The data seems to contradict a lot of what you pretend. (More details in my last Empirical Research thread).
You should feel ashamed to scapegoat this forum for your own purposes. In the NYT article they framed it as all experts would agree how dangerous suicide forums are. That is a fucking blatant lie.

You are way worse than the people you fight against. I won't stop pointing that out.
This is really like virtue signaling. "Look at us we are against suicide. Look at this evil suicide forum and their incel members. We are against suicide. Suicide is bad and immoral. We are the good ones!"

Fucking hypocrites!

I just read a doctoral thesis which also evaluates that this narrative of being a death cult is absolutely bullshit. Instead of getting lethal means or competition for the next suicide the main focus is the exchange of ideas (not suicide ideas), social interaction and decreasing suicidal actions.

https://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/dbt_derivate_00035201/weibels.pdf

Das Medium Internet bietet die Möglichkeit zum Kontakt, zur niederschwelligen Kommunikation über ein Thema, welches im realen Leben zu wenig Raum erhält. Verteufelungen, die in Suizid-Foren und –Chats eine Sektenstruktur mit pathologischer Kommunikation und Ansteckungsgefahr sehen, lassen sich durch meine Daten nicht aufrecht erhalten. Statt Methodengenerierung, dem Beschaffen von todbringenden Medikamenten oder suizidalem Wettkampf stehen Gedankenaustausch, soziale Integration und das Verringern von suizidalen Handlungen im Vordergrund.

I did not read it fully. But it is very differentiated. I only skimmed through it. But the most modern scientifical studies seem to be pretty oppossed to the demonization of suicide forums.

 

[Zotz101]

I understand why some people think sites like this should be closed. Obviously, it has motivated and assisted many suicides. Personally, I would not have even been able to attempt to CTB last year without the partial hanging SS mega thread.

Yet, you're right - sites like this should stay open. Not only freedom of speech, but also to provide a safe space for people to talk about their issues. Being suicidal is so incredibly isolating. It's impossibly difficult to talk about it, really. This platform gives us a space to share our feelings. And, the people who go through with suicide would have found other methods/resources to do it anyway.

There are so many other more prevalent causes of suicide that laws and regulations should address. Targeting sites like SS are "convenience" - easy targets, minnows. There are millions upon millions of suicidal people who aren't aware of SS. There are millions more people who are suicidal because of addiction (alcohol, gambling, drugs) discrimination (LGBT, race) or life circumstance (poverty) that governments/institutions won't address because of how difficult it is to create structural change to attempt to eradicate suicidal ideation. No major investment in drug rehabilitation programmes in most countries - but, hey, we can target SS!

It's so fucking annoying it makes me want to scream.

 

[noaccount]

Thank you for sharing this. Trying to see if I can unlock it via scihub but not having luck...

 

[Ava]

Think its from people that have low suicide talk tolerance. They are the ones whose family members can't be honest about depression or ctb. They are the ones that make you fake smile and pretend everything is great because any true conversations about ctb is too much for them. I had a therapist with a high tolerance for suicide talk. I never had to worry about hospitalization.. he never got angry at me for cutting..I miss him.. it makes a difference when you can truly be honest. Those calling it a cult are the brain dead stepford wives that can't ever face any true heart to hearts