3 ms·

What this article is missing is the cultural significance of suicide in Japan. There are suicide clubs!

• caprese 8y ago
  My observation is the most suicide discussion has greatly reduced suicide to the point that there isn't a discussion. On Quora I once explained to a perplexed Chinese poster that our culture aims to avoid suicide and views it as a non-option, as she didn't understand why the other people were ignoring her obvious easier solution to what she considered undesirable failure. "Suicide is to be prevented" doesn't address different cultures, and it barely addresses what people go through in the west, because people don't talk about it and don't want to. Lots of people want to talk you out of it and explain how it affects other people, nobody addresses the underlying issue or dead-ends people run into. I would say the counterproductive nature of this messaging is - by definition - making it clearer that suicide is a viable option. So if we want to actually prevent suicide, we have to go deeper and give people purpose if their underlying issue can't be addressed.