Linkblogging

[telophase]

MindHacks links to an interesting article in the New York Times on the myth that if a suicidal person is prevented from killing themselves they'll just find another way. It seems that only about 10% or fewer of those prevented from doing so actually go ahead with it, as most suicides are impulsive. Something as simple as putting pills in blister packs can reduce the suicide rate by adding time for the person to think about it and get over the initial impulse.

calixa is watching a cracked-out medical j-drama called Iryu Team Medical Dragon. "MEDICAL DRAGON IS TRAINING HIS BATISTA TECHNIQUE....BY... BY... STANDING SHIRTLESS ON THE ROOF... AND LETTING SMOKE SWIRL ABOUT HIS NAKED BODY...AND... DOING THE HAND MOTIONS OF SURGERY."

The Frontal Cortex quotes Robert Sapolsky on his baboon study and how violence and non-violence seems to be tied with culture.

The Outlaw Design Blog talks about how freelancer artists and designers can increase their referrals.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Maybe bullets should be sold in blister packs. Individually wrapped. The impenetrable kind you need scissors and a vise grip to open.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

That would probably work. :)

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

The cynical (and somewhat experienced) part of me says that the Times article is probably true, but it depends on how many times that person has been stopped. If you're talking a half dozen or more, then yes, they will eventually succeed.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

The article addresses that - the small amount who continue to try 10, 20+ times will probably eventually succeed. But for the vast majority, on the order of 90%, suicide is impulsive, due to a combination of factors (psychological state, ease of access to means, etc.) and just giving the person a few minutes (or hours, in some cases) to back down and think things over can prevent it.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I suspected it might, I just haven't got anything like the time to read anything longer than a paragraph or so right now. It doesn't help that suicide is a 'hot button' topic for me.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's handled well - the main idea is that things like making bridges with higher railings cuts the number of jumpers because giving the person just that much more time to think often causes them to back down from the idea. But movements to do things like that for bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge tend to be thwarted by people who assume that most suicides will find another way, when that seems not to be the case for most.

[janni.livejournal.com]

There's also the fact that depression itself can be transitory--if the stopped person can manage to either get into therapy, or be delayed long enough for the depression to resolve on its own, that could make a difference, too.

Of the two suicides I've known most directly, one seemed to be an impulse jump (so it was interesting to see that that in particular tends to be an impulse thing); the other was clearly the determined sort that planned it in advance, and would have tried again.

Unless, you know, we could have gotten her into therapy somehow. She was resistant to same, but if she could have been gotten there, there's a good chance it would have helped.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I can understand the jump impulse, I think - when I get too close to edges of things I get seized with the irrational idea that I might snap and jump, so I have to hold on to railings, or back away. And I think I can see how I might actually have that impulse if I was in terrible physical, mental, or emotional pain and just wanted it all to stop.

Back in January, when I had the migraine from hell, what kept me going was the thought that it would have to stop at some point. If I ended up with chronic migraine that bad and lost that hope, I can see where suicide would become a definite option. That might be a determined one.

I knew one person directly who committed suicide was the latter, determined sort, I think. Well, they think it was suicide - he disappeared, they found his car with his wallet on the seat near a large wooded area, but didn't find his body. I think his wife reported that he was depressed, and his colleagues - my dad among them - realized afterward that he'd displayed a different pattern of behavior in visiting everyone and wrapping up his projects with them shortly before he disappeared.

My great-uncle shot himself, and that might have been prevented if there had been some form of intervention. But he lived alone, his wife had died during an operation a year or so before, and I don't think he sought help for depression and grief.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I can understand the jump impulse, too--which I sometimes think of as the "what if I just stepped in front of that car" impulse. I think I understand it better than the more deliberate sort, actually. It's--almost as much curiosity as depression.

The best deterrent I know of is actually the friend of mine who killed herself five years ago--I've had at least a couple other people say to me since then that while they used to have suicide in the backs of their minds as an option, after seeing just how much pain that suicide left behind, doing the same was no longer an option for them.

It can go the other way of course--suicide leads to depression in those around the person leads to more suicides. But I do think people underestimate or minimize, when considering it, just what sort of devastation they leave behind (or maybe are in too much pain to be able to care). I've never been suicidal myself (though I have been clinically depressed), but it became clear to me when my friend died that it's not overstating it to say that killing yourself is an act of violence, not only against yourself, but against your loved ones as well.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I agree, though I think in a lot of the cases, at in at least a couple of suicidal friends I've known, when they're in suicidal states they're incapable of realizing how much it will affect those around them. Their pain or wonky brain chemistry convinces them that they're a burden on others, or that nobody cares about them or will miss them, and if they don't get that thought process interrupted in time by therapy, support, or what-have-you, it can go badly.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I believe in her journal our friend even reasoned that it would take maybe a months, tops, for us all to get over what she was about to do--and she believed it.

[kate_nepveu]

Further on impulsive suicides: DC gun ban in 1976 "correlated with an abrupt 25 percent decline in suicides." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/06/AR2008070602118.html

[unrelatedwaffle.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of reading that Elvis always used to keep the first chamber of his gun empty, because he knew his own temper, and when that gun went *click* instead of *bang*, it shocked him into realizing what he was doing. One wonders why he didn't just keep every chamber empty, but who can explain anything that crazy man did.