4 ms·

I interviewed 60 people less than 24 hours after they attempted suicide. AMA

58 points by RoboTeddy 15y ago

pstack 15y ago
From the site: Where interesting people say: "Ask me anything." You know the author is interesting, because there's a giant photo of them in a dress cut down to their navel, right above the questions about interviewing dozens of attempted suicides.
- skermes 15y ago
  Please do enlighten us: what is the correct clothing to wear on a website when you discuss attempted suicides? Should we make sure to stick to earth tones so that we respect the solemnity of the topic, or do we want to add some bright colors in to make sure no gets even sadder? This is one area where I sure wouldn't want to make a misstep. What's your opinion vis a vis a pipe for added gravitas? I think it might go too far. Maybe when you're done with suicide-related topics, you could compose a manual for other scenarios, so that we can be sure to never again offend your sense of fashion. tl;dr, cut the fucking body policing, jackass.
  - felipemnoa 15y ago
    Maybe he was just making a joke/being funny? If indeed then probably should make that clear since we all come from different cultures and sometimes jokes are misunderstood.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - derefr 15y ago
    I think the "serious answer" would be "you don't put a photo of yourself, or, in fact, anything related to yourself that could be misconstrued as egocentric or status-serving, in an article related to suicide; you just let it speak for itself." However, that sort of goes against the whole point of the site's format, which is, basically, to status-affiliate [through social learning] with people who have done things that have made them high-status in one way or another. I think the "serious answer" to that would be "then they shouldn't have done the interview" (or "they should have made some special exception to their normal site formatting," which through interview prioritization basically amounts to the same thing) which has interesting implications for the ethics of free speech.
    - pstack 15y ago
      I could understand if it were just a little user icon off in the corner, but to have a huge 200x300 photo in the article is a little obnoxious, though probably not intentionally crude. If it's an automated function of the site that puts it there for, then maybe a more tasteful choice of photo is called for when one posts several articles about working with suicide patients. I should edit this to add that the author being an attractive young women is irrelevant and that a similar photo with a male author would be as unfortunately distasteful. And as the other poster mentioned, they thoughtfully changed their photo. Maybe it's just a cruddy way the site automates the use of people's photos in a sort of template?
  - rokhayakebe 15y ago
    I have to admit when I clicked on the page I thought about it, but I was a nice surprise. Btw she changed the picture.
  - pyre 15y ago
    > what is the correct clothing to wear on a > website when you discuss attempted suicides? You're missing the point: What value does the photo even add to the focus of the discussion? There's already a icon/avatar photo of her in the top right corner with her twitter account. Why are we blasted with a huge photo of her (regardless of what she's wearing)? Personally, I would find a huge photo of a guy with a beard toting a sweater vest and smoking a pipe just as jarring.
    - GraffitiTim 15y ago
      We ask for a relevant photo when you create an AMA. I think a photo of the person answering questions is more relevant than some sort of suicide-related stock photo.
      - pyre 15y ago
        You're misunderstanding. I'm advocating no photo.
fezzl 15y ago
I was looking for the transcripts of the interviews she did with the suicide victims. I was a bit disappointed.
- RoboTeddy 15y ago
  If you're curious, could probably ask her a question about the type of things people said
- btmorex 15y ago
  She wouldn't be able to release those without consent or major editing / censorship due to patient privacy laws.
tptacek 15y ago
I stopped reading after the first question, where the interviewee states that people are "rarely" forced into inpatient treatment against their will. Maybe it's an insurance thing and they kick out the indigents by rationalizing their "commitment to outpatient treatment", but I have multiple friends who sought psychiatric help proactively, got talked into conceding suicidal ideation, and ended up stuck in worthless inpatient prisons for days and days. This is real, serious problem with how we handle mental illness; anybody savvy enough to know what emergency help is available should unfortunately be savvy enough to know to avoid showing up anywhere in person.
- j_baker 15y ago
  I think there's a more practical reason behind it. In the United States, it's actually pretty hard to get someone committed against their will, and plenty of psychiatrists have argued that it should be easier to do so (and not completely without merit). I mean, how many people on the streets are there because they're incapable of taking care of themselves? How many people have committed crimes that could have been prevented with a mental hospital stay?
  - todayiamme 15y ago
    >>> How many people have committed crimes that could have been prevented with a mental hospital stay? <<< Isn't this essentially equivalent to pre-emptive punishment? If you abstract it you could say, how many murders will stop if we lock up anyone who has ever been in a violent altercation? It is compelling in some ways, but this list also includes anyone in a very stupid bar fight. The real problem isn't even the haziness of the line, it's where do you draw the line. Is being gay evil? Not too long ago it was viewed as that, and feminine boys were quite often put through hell. I really don't want to live in a world like that. This led to atrocities like these; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aversion_therapy#In_homosexuality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aversion_therapy#In_homosexuali... The problem with a lot of psychiatry is the game of vested interests. For example, people making the DSM have a vested interest to categorise deviations from the social norm into disorders which require their own unique brand of "therapy". If you add in the fact that most of psychology research lacks proper scientific methodology, and its often used as a platform to prove a point, which somehow always agrees with the researchers prejudices, you get people juggling grenades on a glass slop, while balancing on a wet soap bar.
rokhayakebe 15y ago
Where I am from when someone says I am tired, I am going to commit suicide (and they could sound a bit serious), the most likely answer you get is Sure. Go ahead. We'll only cry for one day and eat well at your funerals. I have never known anyone who went through with it.
- pstack 15y ago
  The problem is that you never know when someone is just talking, just seeking attention, or is serious. Often, the most serious don't talk about it. They just do it. But even attempting it is bad enough and while many might make light of someone's threats about it as nothing more than lame attempts at milking attention, that alone denotes a fairly serious concern. There are several levels before the point of actually attempting or committing the act which are deserving of serious notice. I haven't known anyone who went through with it, either (though I know many who know those who have). I'll tell you, however, that I'd sure rather know someone that made threats that I took serious and tried to get help for than know someone I didn't take serious and will regret not taking serious for the rest of my life.
- sixtofour 15y ago
  Maybe you also come from someplace where friends and families keep suicides of friends and relatives secret whenever possible, due to stigma. I personally know two completions.
paulnelligan 15y ago
I attempted to sign in to ask a question, and got the following message: This application will be able to: Read Tweets from your timeline. See who you follow, and follow new people. Update your profile. Post Tweets for you. Access your direct messages until June 30th, 2011. Who the in their right mind would sign into this ???
- GraffitiTim 15y ago
  I couldn't find a way to ask for fewer permissions. All we need is ability to post tweets since there's a checkbox to post to your followers when you ask a question or start an AMA. We don't use any of the other permissions and won't do anything unexpected. For what it's worth, we've run the Graffiti app on Facebook since the launch of the platform, and have never spammed anyone or their friends, or misused any data or permissions.
  - todayiamme 15y ago
    Why don't you let them tweet with a simple "tweet this" button instead? Why can't you just put in a tweet this button in a notice that appears after they post?
  - paulnelligan 15y ago
    Hi Tim I wasn't actually expecting a personalised response from the AnyAsq creator. It was more a general comment, and the question still stands I think - read my DM's?, no frickin' way!! - that's a serious invasion of privacy ... I understand that you have to do what you can to spread your product, but there's a trade-off between being able to tweet, and asking someone to basically give up their twitter accounts to you ... you're going to lose more potential customers than gain with this method IMHO ... How about: asking someone to sign in twitter, and asking their permission to just tweet their questions? - could you limit it to that ?
    - GraffitiTim 15y ago
      I appreciate the feedback, and we're still thinking about how best to do it. I'm hoping at some point twitter will implement a more granular way to ask for permissions. As for direct messages, I believe twitter will stop asking for that either today or tomorrow.
cromulent 15y ago
"Rarely do people without a serious mental illness attempt to take their own lives." I wonder if she considers voluntary euthanasia to be a form of suicide, or whether these simply were not part of her study (maybe due to their success).
jessor 15y ago
Check out her blog, interesting stuff there, too: http://taradeliberto.blogspot.com/ http://taradeliberto.blogspot.com/

58 points by RoboTeddy 15y ago

From the site: Where interesting people say: "Ask me anything." You know the author is interesting, because there's a giant photo of them in a dress cut down to their navel, right above the questions about interviewing dozens of attempted suicides.

skermes 15y ago
Please do enlighten us: what is the correct clothing to wear on a website when you discuss attempted suicides? Should we make sure to stick to earth tones so that we respect the solemnity of the topic, or do we want to add some bright colors in to make sure no gets even sadder? This is one area where I sure wouldn't want to make a misstep. What's your opinion vis a vis a pipe for added gravitas? I think it might go too far. Maybe when you're done with suicide-related topics, you could compose a manual for other scenarios, so that we can be sure to never again offend your sense of fashion. tl;dr, cut the fucking body policing, jackass.
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  Maybe he was just making a joke/being funny? If indeed then probably should make that clear since we all come from different cultures and sometimes jokes are misunderstood.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- derefr 15y ago
  I think the "serious answer" would be "you don't put a photo of yourself, or, in fact, anything related to yourself that could be misconstrued as egocentric or status-serving, in an article related to suicide; you just let it speak for itself." However, that sort of goes against the whole point of the site's format, which is, basically, to status-affiliate [through social learning] with people who have done things that have made them high-status in one way or another. I think the "serious answer" to that would be "then they shouldn't have done the interview" (or "they should have made some special exception to their normal site formatting," which through interview prioritization basically amounts to the same thing) which has interesting implications for the ethics of free speech.
  - pstack 15y ago
    I could understand if it were just a little user icon off in the corner, but to have a huge 200x300 photo in the article is a little obnoxious, though probably not intentionally crude. If it's an automated function of the site that puts it there for, then maybe a more tasteful choice of photo is called for when one posts several articles about working with suicide patients. I should edit this to add that the author being an attractive young women is irrelevant and that a similar photo with a male author would be as unfortunately distasteful. And as the other poster mentioned, they thoughtfully changed their photo. Maybe it's just a cruddy way the site automates the use of people's photos in a sort of template?
- rokhayakebe 15y ago
  I have to admit when I clicked on the page I thought about it, but I was a nice surprise. Btw she changed the picture.
- pyre 15y ago
  > what is the correct clothing to wear on a > website when you discuss attempted suicides? You're missing the point: What value does the photo even add to the focus of the discussion? There's already a icon/avatar photo of her in the top right corner with her twitter account. Why are we blasted with a huge photo of her (regardless of what she's wearing)? Personally, I would find a huge photo of a guy with a beard toting a sweater vest and smoking a pipe just as jarring.
  - GraffitiTim 15y ago
    We ask for a relevant photo when you create an AMA. I think a photo of the person answering questions is more relevant than some sort of suicide-related stock photo.
    - pyre 15y ago
      You're misunderstanding. I'm advocating no photo.

fezzl 15y ago

I was looking for the transcripts of the interviews she did with the suicide victims. I was a bit disappointed.

RoboTeddy 15y ago
If you're curious, could probably ask her a question about the type of things people said
btmorex 15y ago
She wouldn't be able to release those without consent or major editing / censorship due to patient privacy laws.

tptacek 15y ago

I stopped reading after the first question, where the interviewee states that people are "rarely" forced into inpatient treatment against their will. Maybe it's an insurance thing and they kick out the indigents by rationalizing their "commitment to outpatient treatment", but I have multiple friends who sought psychiatric help proactively, got talked into conceding suicidal ideation, and ended up stuck in worthless inpatient prisons for days and days. This is real, serious problem with how we handle mental illness; anybody savvy enough to know what emergency help is available should unfortunately be savvy enough to know to avoid showing up anywhere in person.

j_baker 15y ago
I think there's a more practical reason behind it. In the United States, it's actually pretty hard to get someone committed against their will, and plenty of psychiatrists have argued that it should be easier to do so (and not completely without merit). I mean, how many people on the streets are there because they're incapable of taking care of themselves? How many people have committed crimes that could have been prevented with a mental hospital stay?
- todayiamme 15y ago
  >>> How many people have committed crimes that could have been prevented with a mental hospital stay? <<< Isn't this essentially equivalent to pre-emptive punishment? If you abstract it you could say, how many murders will stop if we lock up anyone who has ever been in a violent altercation? It is compelling in some ways, but this list also includes anyone in a very stupid bar fight. The real problem isn't even the haziness of the line, it's where do you draw the line. Is being gay evil? Not too long ago it was viewed as that, and feminine boys were quite often put through hell. I really don't want to live in a world like that. This led to atrocities like these; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aversion_therapy#In_homosexuality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aversion_therapy#In_homosexuali... The problem with a lot of psychiatry is the game of vested interests. For example, people making the DSM have a vested interest to categorise deviations from the social norm into disorders which require their own unique brand of "therapy". If you add in the fact that most of psychology research lacks proper scientific methodology, and its often used as a platform to prove a point, which somehow always agrees with the researchers prejudices, you get people juggling grenades on a glass slop, while balancing on a wet soap bar.

rokhayakebe 15y ago

Where I am from when someone says I am tired, I am going to commit suicide (and they could sound a bit serious), the most likely answer you get is Sure. Go ahead. We'll only cry for one day and eat well at your funerals. I have never known anyone who went through with it.

pstack 15y ago
The problem is that you never know when someone is just talking, just seeking attention, or is serious. Often, the most serious don't talk about it. They just do it. But even attempting it is bad enough and while many might make light of someone's threats about it as nothing more than lame attempts at milking attention, that alone denotes a fairly serious concern. There are several levels before the point of actually attempting or committing the act which are deserving of serious notice. I haven't known anyone who went through with it, either (though I know many who know those who have). I'll tell you, however, that I'd sure rather know someone that made threats that I took serious and tried to get help for than know someone I didn't take serious and will regret not taking serious for the rest of my life.
sixtofour 15y ago
Maybe you also come from someplace where friends and families keep suicides of friends and relatives secret whenever possible, due to stigma. I personally know two completions.

paulnelligan 15y ago

I attempted to sign in to ask a question, and got the following message: This application will be able to: Read Tweets from your timeline. See who you follow, and follow new people. Update your profile. Post Tweets for you. Access your direct messages until June 30th, 2011. Who the in their right mind would sign into this ???

GraffitiTim 15y ago
I couldn't find a way to ask for fewer permissions. All we need is ability to post tweets since there's a checkbox to post to your followers when you ask a question or start an AMA. We don't use any of the other permissions and won't do anything unexpected. For what it's worth, we've run the Graffiti app on Facebook since the launch of the platform, and have never spammed anyone or their friends, or misused any data or permissions.
- todayiamme 15y ago
  Why don't you let them tweet with a simple "tweet this" button instead? Why can't you just put in a tweet this button in a notice that appears after they post?
- paulnelligan 15y ago
  Hi Tim I wasn't actually expecting a personalised response from the AnyAsq creator. It was more a general comment, and the question still stands I think - read my DM's?, no frickin' way!! - that's a serious invasion of privacy ... I understand that you have to do what you can to spread your product, but there's a trade-off between being able to tweet, and asking someone to basically give up their twitter accounts to you ... you're going to lose more potential customers than gain with this method IMHO ... How about: asking someone to sign in twitter, and asking their permission to just tweet their questions? - could you limit it to that ?
  - GraffitiTim 15y ago
    I appreciate the feedback, and we're still thinking about how best to do it. I'm hoping at some point twitter will implement a more granular way to ask for permissions. As for direct messages, I believe twitter will stop asking for that either today or tomorrow.

cromulent 15y ago

"Rarely do people without a serious mental illness attempt to take their own lives." I wonder if she considers voluntary euthanasia to be a form of suicide, or whether these simply were not part of her study (maybe due to their success).

jessor 15y ago

Check out her blog, interesting stuff there, too: http://taradeliberto.blogspot.com/ http://taradeliberto.blogspot.com/