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Do we have good generalized methods for preventing suicide that could be applied to drug overdoses if we started considering them to be suicides? I would have g
by tshaddox 4y ago
Do we have good generalized methods for preventing suicide that could be applied to drug overdoses if we started considering them to be suicides? I would have guessed the opposite: that there are specific, targeted methods for treating drug addiction, and that preventing other suicides could be improved by better identifying proximate causes rather than lumping them all together.
- chasd00 4y agoThe difference is people set out to commit suicide but drug overdoses are accidental. You can’t get to someone before the overdose because you(and they) never know when they’re going to.
- pigsty 4y agoA problem is a lot of heavy addicts fully accept that they’ll die from it. It’s like closing your eyes while driving or playing Russian roulette once a week. There’s no guarantee you’ll die that time, but it’s likely going to happen someday unless someone intervenes or your life changes in a way that you no longer want to take that gamble. Treating opiate addiction as someone on the path to suicide would be very different than framing them as a criminal or hopelessly diseased (the “progressive” model of addiction that took over the criminal model). But clearly there’s a lot of opposition to that idea, even here. Some people hide their addiction well. Some don’t and are surrounded by friends and family who are aware of their struggle but don’t know how to help. It’s in many cases less surprising than people want to think.