9 ms·

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

472 points by sethbannon 14y ago

fourstar 14y ago
Not trying to be facetious here, but are there some kind of statistics somewhere out there that show how effective suicide hotlines are? I always hear about them, but have yet to hear about someone who used one successfully. E.g. X% of people have been dissuaded by suicide attempts after speaking to a suicide hotline.
- daeken 14y ago
  I don't have any numbers, but I know at least 3 people who have used them in the past. When I was younger, I used an anonymous online suicide hotline site (though I don't recall which), which at least made me stop and think, which is often enough.
- rdl 14y ago
  Probably more effective earlier. Someone living while being horribly depressed all the time isn't exactly a victory, either. I assume suicide hotlines can refer depressed and "suicidal ideation" people, who aren't yet actually killing themselves, to help as well.
- britta 14y ago
  I just tried searching Google Scholar, and it turned up studies showing effectiveness: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.33.4.400.25235/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.33.4.400.252... - "Independent raters measured callers' suicidality and mental state at the beginning and end of 100 taped counselling sessions. Changes in suicidality and mental state were measured using a reliable rating scale developed for the study. Significant decreases in suicidality and significant improvement in mental state were found to occur during the course of counselling sessions, suggesting positive immediate impact." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.2007.37.3.338/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.2007.37.3.33... - "Significant decreases in suicidality were found during the course of the telephone session, with continuing decreases in hopelessness and psychological pain in the following weeks." http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1022269314076?LI=true http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1022269314076... - "Outcome measures showed observer evaluations of decreased depressive mood from the beginning to the end in 14% of calls, decreased suicidal urgency ratings from the beginning to the end in 27% of calls, and reaching a contract in 68% of calls, of which 54% of contracts were upheld according to follow-up data." In case people don't know this: these hotlines also help people who are concerned about friends and family members, and there are email-based options like http://www.samaritans.org/ http://www.samaritans.org/.
  - vik1211 14y ago
    I volunteer as a crisis and suicide counselor for Didi Hirsch (a national suicide line branch) in Los Angeles. Thanks for posting these studies and validating the important work.
- jacquesm 14y ago
  hm. wrong link... anyway, a re-run: A friend of mine worked for one for a while. She says it is a mixed bag, you win a lot, you lose some too. It's the toughest thing anybody could pick to do as a job. She's a pretty successful businesswoman and decided to take a years break and looked for something useful to do, ended up manning one of the phones.
- adrianhoward 14y ago
  Yes there is solid research that it helps - see @britta's comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047160 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047160 Anecdotally I worked as a part-time volunteer on a general counselling service for a couple of years in my twenties - which included some suicide calls. A goodly chunk of the time it felt like you made a difference. We occasionally got "thank you" calls weeks/months later to say that we'd stopped folk doing things that they would now regret (sometimes from folk you thought you hadn't helped...)
- 616c 14y ago
  I actually worked for the national hotline as a volunteer. I worked at a local crisis hotline in the Maryland area, and each one of these places ties into the national hotline, as it does (and please feel free to troll me) a round-robin process and tries to find the closest center given the area code of the caller. I personally handled less than a dozen of these calls. I cannot go into details because we all sign NDA's (surprise, surprise), but I will tell you in all my time we never had someone commit suicide. Also, even volunteer people like myself are trained in suicidology assessment, and getting a stage 3 person warrants you calling law enforcement and/or emergency services given your discretion. In my over a year there, I saw that happen only once when they thought it would be close. I personally talked down many people, and it was my personal opinion those who called the hotline were rarely those were at a level so bad they were going to do it on the phone. Just my two cents.
  - alanctgardner2 14y ago
    Just to clarify, does this mean you don't think it's a worthwhile service? It kind of sounds like you're implying that people who phone aren't really serious, but does it follow then that people should call, or that they shouldn't exist, or what? I'm very grateful that you volunteered with them, but I'm really curious what conclusion we're supposed to draw from your experience. At worst it sounds slightly dismissive of the line and the people who call.
- igorgue 14y ago
  I called one once, it's pretty effective, even though his advice didn't work or was dumb, I think just having somebody to listen to you is good enough, during that time nobody, meaning none of my friends, was answering my calls.
  - pfortuny 14y ago
    A lot of times one just needs someone to just LISTEN and be sympathetic (that is, supportive without being hypersensitive)... It may be what is called 'empathy'.
- bjxrn 14y ago
  I don't have the numbers at hand, but I've heard of a study saying that suicide very often is a very impulsive action. Saying that in most cases there's less than an hour between deciding to commit suicide and the action itself (numbers might be off here). Looks like I got it from a Freakonomics podcast [1]: "One academic study looked at attempted suicides in Houston among 15 to 34 year olds. It found that in 70 percent of the cases, the time between deciding to commit suicide and taking action was under an hour. Seventy-percent of the cases. For about one-quarter of the people involved, the time gap was five minutes or less." Of course, from this it doesn't follow that a hotline it necessarily effective. Luckily britta already posted links to some studies. [1] http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/06/21/the-suicide-paradox-full-transcript/ http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/06/21/the-suicide-paradox-f...
  - ieze 14y ago
    In the UK a certain over-the-counter drug that can be used to commit suicide is only sold in quantities insufficient for suicide. There is nothing to stop a person from going to several shops, but the measure is effective because that takes longer.
- CoryG89 14y ago
  I would imagine that in reality the percentage of callers that actually intend to commit suicide is probably pretty low, regardless of 'studies'. How are you going to really study something like that objectively? I can't imagine that anyone would ever hear about someone who used one successfully. Only the actual suicides are going to make the news like this, which is sad. However, I would think it would be worth it even if a hotline is only able to dissuade even 1/10000 callers intent on committing suicide.
  - SoftwareMaven 14y ago
    Even if the same amount of money could save five lives elsewhere? As a person who continually deals with depression, I'm glad the hotlines exist and absolutely think they are worth it; but I cringe every time I hear, "if it only saves one life" regardless of the cost (which is usually billions of dollars and a few civil rights when the government is involved).
- alanctgardner2 14y ago
  Here we call them something like a 'crisis line'. They aren't just for people who are considering suicide; I have had friends with extreme anxiety who phoned to talk through their fears. This helped them work through crippling anxiety attacks and allowed them to go to class, work, etc. afterwards. The people on these lines are very well trained at active listening, and that can be useful in a lot of mental health situations where suicide may never have been the end result.
- navs 14y ago
  Possibly inconsequential but you have one right here. I've called a suicide hotline more times than I can remember. They don't tell you something resulting in some great epiphany. What they do is talk to you. Simply talk to you, hear what you have to say, keep you on the line and make you feel heard. That's all I needed to calm down. Maybe that's what most people need. No suicide line has ever sent me a form asking if they've done a good job. I imagine they are constantly swamped.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
rdl 14y ago
The one at MIT, Nightline, was smart because it pitched itself as a general "call for any reason at night" number -- I called a couple times to get urgent help (after someone tried unsuccessfully to mug me, and I needed to figure out who to report to) -- not just for suicidal people. I suspect there are depressed people who may ultimately kill themselves who, if there were some number solely for "suicidal people", would never call, but would be likely to call "call for any reason", and then get access to mental health care in addition to whatever the phone operator gives them. Nice to see that somehow the MIT administration fucked up Nightline, too, so it's closed for a year. Good job guys!
- benologist 14y ago
  I think you're right that it needs to be more general support, someone I loved had just the last 7% of her life 'covered' by suicide hotlines and 26 years of suffering before them. The final days, weeks, months, it was all just a delaying measure at that point because she'd already come to terms with what she wanted to do. I don't really think the solution is more hotlines, even generalized ones because you have to want to get help every single time. I think the solution is to shine so much light on mental illness it loses all of the mystery and stigma and becomes as widely discussed and debated as the following 'mentally healthy' ways to kill yourself or someone else: - Euthanasia, or "mercy" killing because we are glad someone's suffering has ended - Abortion, literally deciding to end another person's life who is incapable of asking you not to And of course, the preferred method of suicide that most people will use: - a slow poison of shitty diets and deadly vices We never even discussed mental illness or even suicide in high school like we did ethical dilemmas.
- tomaisthorpe 14y ago
  We have a Nightline at University of Leeds for anyone to call for anything. It's a great thing for people who just need someone to talk to. Whether they're feeling suicidal or just a bit stressed over exams. And the number is on the back of every student ID, which means anyone can find their number really easily.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
pfortuny 14y ago
Whenever your depression (or anything similar) symptoms are relieved and another person is helping you, that is enough to get you at least 'just a bit' further away from suicide. And, really, this cannot be easily accounted for. The problem with human interactions and ease of anxiety is that you will probably never be able to get a proper and useful metric. I'd say most depressive people would not fill a form after calling any help hotline.
aes256 14y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines
hihuhiahei 14y ago
ARE YOU %100 SURE that he committed suicide????? Wnat is that?
- ufo 14y ago
  He hanged himself.
jrogers65 14y ago
The most effective immediate suicide prevention available is a surprising one. It's Ketamine. It takes effect very rapidly and the anti-depressant effects persist for months from a single dose. It's a wonder how SSRI's are in wide use when there are far more effective treatments which have been around since the 60's. Marketing and business are to blame for that, I suppose. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251220.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251220.php There are also some novel NMDA antagonists (same mechanism as Ketamine) in the works, which come with less perception alterations, the names of which escape me, which will change things for the better for a lot of people.
- objclxt 14y ago
  Ketamine may be effective, but is it useful for 'immediate' prevention? I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'immediate'. Someone already posted a link here suggesting a significant number of suicides are impulsive, and many people have planned suicides without their friends or family having any idea. I can't see how in many of these situations a controlled drug is going to help. We could only administer ketamine to those who exhibit depression or suicidal tendencies, but sadly these signs are not always visible or picked up.
  - jrogers65 14y ago
    I meant in the context of someone about to commit suicide and calling a helpline. Send someone over, give them an injection and you've bought a few months of time during which they can recieve therapy. A lot of failed suicide attempts tend to get repeated. It would solve that issue very well.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
sergiotapia 14y ago
I kind of find it in poor taste to post this link at this point in time. Just my thoughts.
- rooshdi 14y ago
  The intention is to help others contemplating the same thing. Who knows, this may help one person out there turn their life around.
- Maxious 14y ago
  It is part of media regulations in many countries/organisations that reporting of suicide must be done in certain ways to reduce the negative effect that may have on potentially vulnerable people. A full list of countries that enforce this on a national level is available from the International Association for Suicide Prevention http://www.iasp.info/media_guidelines.php http://www.iasp.info/media_guidelines.php One of these requirements is any story involving to suicide or mental health must be accompanied by information about 24-hour crisis support services http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/adding-helplines-to-stories/why-add-help-seeking-information-to-a-story http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/adding-helplines-t...
- ieze 14y ago
  It's well meaning. "Hearing about a suicide seems to make those who are vulnerable feel they have permission to do it" -- David Phillips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide Unfortunately http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/16e15s/i_transcribed_kurt_cobains_suicide_note_ive_never/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/16e15s/i_transcribed_... was posted and front-paged yesterday. Google returns a local suicide prevention line number when you google suicide. Perhaps social media sites should discourage posting on the subject at the time of submission, or trying to wrap such content with reminder to the readership that they matter.
ghc 14y ago
I'm glad this is on the front page. Often when I learn of the suicide of someone I knew or respected I briefly experience idle "sympathetic" suicidal thoughts. This always leaves me shaken because we've all been taught to seek help immediately if we ever experience suicidal thoughts, but I know I'm not depressed, even if life is indeed very difficult sometimes. I imagine someone truly depressed and suicidal might experience a very strong impulse to act on their thoughts upon hearing news like this.
- netrus 14y ago
  In Germany we call it Werther Effekt (following Goethe's novel Die Leiden des Jungen Werther). Public attention to a suicide often triggers additional suicides.
Tichy 14y ago
I'd be curious to know what they teach the people manning the phones. Sometimes I ponder volunteering, but honestly, atm anybody talking to me would probably be more suicidal afterwards than before. Are there even universal things to say? Perhaps somebody religious needs to hear "god loves you no matter what", whereas I for example found solace in thinking about atheism and evolution theory. Probably the first talks are not even about such things, rather about convincing the person that most problems are solvable and that they can get help?
- andrewtbham 14y ago
  I was a counselor at one and yes they will train you on what to say. Generally, you will be trained not to give a lot of advice, but to do reflective listening. It was interesting for me and has helped a lot in my personal life.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
wissler 14y ago
"Please don’t pathologize this story." -- Aaron's friend, Lawrence Lessig http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bull...
- pfortuny 14y ago
  Well, with due respect, we are as entitled as Lawrence to give an explanation and try to find an answer. What to Lawrence may be 'a reason' to many of us is not: you are valuable even in jail. So we try to find a better explanation than 'as he did not want to go to jail, he decided to kill himself', which is quite simplistic.
  - wissler 14y ago
    With all due respect, I think your interpretations are inane, but if Lessig can't convince you of that, I'm sure there's nothing else I can say that will help you understand.
ameen 14y ago
I've always wondered why suicide is so common among us young programmers. (Ilya, Bill Zeller, etc) As programmers we're able to control how our code behaves, but life on the other hand has too many variables, most of which are beyond one's control - and the only thing one can control is their lives. The will to live can do amazing wonders, but when that will fades -- life doesn't make sense, its just a waste of time and resources.
- tomjen3 14y ago
  Suicide is extremely common among males (compared to women, men end up killing them at self at something like a 10:1 ratio, even though more women than men try to kill them self), particularily young males. Guess who is most likely to be a programmer?
  - riffraff 14y ago
    are you sure about that 10:1 figure? Looking at the available UE data from eurostat[0] the ratio would seem more 4:1, which obviously still confirms your point, I am just curious about your source. [0] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/refreshTableAction.do?tab=table&plugin=0&pcode=tps00122&language=en http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/refreshTableAction.do?t...
    - tomjen3 14y ago
      My memory must be out of wack.
navs 14y ago
I know it doesn't seem feasible but I do wish we could have an "International Suicide Prevention lifeline". When I lived in Fiji, I would often look on the web for some place to call. I often settled for irc chatrooms. It's sad that my first ever foray into irc was because I was lonely and wanted company. I'm lucky that New Zealand, where I live currently, has great support.
j_anon 14y ago
http://www.facebook.com/celebraterecovery/posts/10150473844015946 http://www.facebook.com/celebraterecovery/posts/101504738440...

472 points by sethbannon 14y ago

Not trying to be facetious here, but are there some kind of statistics somewhere out there that show how effective suicide hotlines are? I always hear about them, but have yet to hear about someone who used one successfully. E.g. X% of people have been dissuaded by suicide attempts after speaking to a suicide hotline.

daeken 14y ago
I don't have any numbers, but I know at least 3 people who have used them in the past. When I was younger, I used an anonymous online suicide hotline site (though I don't recall which), which at least made me stop and think, which is often enough.
rdl 14y ago
Probably more effective earlier. Someone living while being horribly depressed all the time isn't exactly a victory, either. I assume suicide hotlines can refer depressed and "suicidal ideation" people, who aren't yet actually killing themselves, to help as well.
britta 14y ago
I just tried searching Google Scholar, and it turned up studies showing effectiveness: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.33.4.400.25235/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.33.4.400.252... - "Independent raters measured callers' suicidality and mental state at the beginning and end of 100 taped counselling sessions. Changes in suicidality and mental state were measured using a reliable rating scale developed for the study. Significant decreases in suicidality and significant improvement in mental state were found to occur during the course of counselling sessions, suggesting positive immediate impact." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.2007.37.3.338/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1521/suli.2007.37.3.33... - "Significant decreases in suicidality were found during the course of the telephone session, with continuing decreases in hopelessness and psychological pain in the following weeks." http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1022269314076?LI=true http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1022269314076... - "Outcome measures showed observer evaluations of decreased depressive mood from the beginning to the end in 14% of calls, decreased suicidal urgency ratings from the beginning to the end in 27% of calls, and reaching a contract in 68% of calls, of which 54% of contracts were upheld according to follow-up data." In case people don't know this: these hotlines also help people who are concerned about friends and family members, and there are email-based options like http://www.samaritans.org/ http://www.samaritans.org/.
- vik1211 14y ago
  I volunteer as a crisis and suicide counselor for Didi Hirsch (a national suicide line branch) in Los Angeles. Thanks for posting these studies and validating the important work.
jacquesm 14y ago
hm. wrong link... anyway, a re-run: A friend of mine worked for one for a while. She says it is a mixed bag, you win a lot, you lose some too. It's the toughest thing anybody could pick to do as a job. She's a pretty successful businesswoman and decided to take a years break and looked for something useful to do, ended up manning one of the phones.
adrianhoward 14y ago
Yes there is solid research that it helps - see @britta's comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047160 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047160 Anecdotally I worked as a part-time volunteer on a general counselling service for a couple of years in my twenties - which included some suicide calls. A goodly chunk of the time it felt like you made a difference. We occasionally got "thank you" calls weeks/months later to say that we'd stopped folk doing things that they would now regret (sometimes from folk you thought you hadn't helped...)
616c 14y ago
I actually worked for the national hotline as a volunteer. I worked at a local crisis hotline in the Maryland area, and each one of these places ties into the national hotline, as it does (and please feel free to troll me) a round-robin process and tries to find the closest center given the area code of the caller. I personally handled less than a dozen of these calls. I cannot go into details because we all sign NDA's (surprise, surprise), but I will tell you in all my time we never had someone commit suicide. Also, even volunteer people like myself are trained in suicidology assessment, and getting a stage 3 person warrants you calling law enforcement and/or emergency services given your discretion. In my over a year there, I saw that happen only once when they thought it would be close. I personally talked down many people, and it was my personal opinion those who called the hotline were rarely those were at a level so bad they were going to do it on the phone. Just my two cents.
- alanctgardner2 14y ago
  Just to clarify, does this mean you don't think it's a worthwhile service? It kind of sounds like you're implying that people who phone aren't really serious, but does it follow then that people should call, or that they shouldn't exist, or what? I'm very grateful that you volunteered with them, but I'm really curious what conclusion we're supposed to draw from your experience. At worst it sounds slightly dismissive of the line and the people who call.
igorgue 14y ago
I called one once, it's pretty effective, even though his advice didn't work or was dumb, I think just having somebody to listen to you is good enough, during that time nobody, meaning none of my friends, was answering my calls.
- pfortuny 14y ago
  A lot of times one just needs someone to just LISTEN and be sympathetic (that is, supportive without being hypersensitive)... It may be what is called 'empathy'.
bjxrn 14y ago
I don't have the numbers at hand, but I've heard of a study saying that suicide very often is a very impulsive action. Saying that in most cases there's less than an hour between deciding to commit suicide and the action itself (numbers might be off here). Looks like I got it from a Freakonomics podcast [1]: "One academic study looked at attempted suicides in Houston among 15 to 34 year olds. It found that in 70 percent of the cases, the time between deciding to commit suicide and taking action was under an hour. Seventy-percent of the cases. For about one-quarter of the people involved, the time gap was five minutes or less." Of course, from this it doesn't follow that a hotline it necessarily effective. Luckily britta already posted links to some studies. [1] http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/06/21/the-suicide-paradox-full-transcript/ http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/06/21/the-suicide-paradox-f...
- ieze 14y ago
  In the UK a certain over-the-counter drug that can be used to commit suicide is only sold in quantities insufficient for suicide. There is nothing to stop a person from going to several shops, but the measure is effective because that takes longer.
CoryG89 14y ago
I would imagine that in reality the percentage of callers that actually intend to commit suicide is probably pretty low, regardless of 'studies'. How are you going to really study something like that objectively? I can't imagine that anyone would ever hear about someone who used one successfully. Only the actual suicides are going to make the news like this, which is sad. However, I would think it would be worth it even if a hotline is only able to dissuade even 1/10000 callers intent on committing suicide.
- SoftwareMaven 14y ago
  Even if the same amount of money could save five lives elsewhere? As a person who continually deals with depression, I'm glad the hotlines exist and absolutely think they are worth it; but I cringe every time I hear, "if it only saves one life" regardless of the cost (which is usually billions of dollars and a few civil rights when the government is involved).
alanctgardner2 14y ago
Here we call them something like a 'crisis line'. They aren't just for people who are considering suicide; I have had friends with extreme anxiety who phoned to talk through their fears. This helped them work through crippling anxiety attacks and allowed them to go to class, work, etc. afterwards. The people on these lines are very well trained at active listening, and that can be useful in a lot of mental health situations where suicide may never have been the end result.
navs 14y ago
Possibly inconsequential but you have one right here. I've called a suicide hotline more times than I can remember. They don't tell you something resulting in some great epiphany. What they do is talk to you. Simply talk to you, hear what you have to say, keep you on the line and make you feel heard. That's all I needed to calm down. Maybe that's what most people need. No suicide line has ever sent me a form asking if they've done a good job. I imagine they are constantly swamped.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

rdl 14y ago

The one at MIT, Nightline, was smart because it pitched itself as a general "call for any reason at night" number -- I called a couple times to get urgent help (after someone tried unsuccessfully to mug me, and I needed to figure out who to report to) -- not just for suicidal people. I suspect there are depressed people who may ultimately kill themselves who, if there were some number solely for "suicidal people", would never call, but would be likely to call "call for any reason", and then get access to mental health care in addition to whatever the phone operator gives them. Nice to see that somehow the MIT administration fucked up Nightline, too, so it's closed for a year. Good job guys!

benologist 14y ago
I think you're right that it needs to be more general support, someone I loved had just the last 7% of her life 'covered' by suicide hotlines and 26 years of suffering before them. The final days, weeks, months, it was all just a delaying measure at that point because she'd already come to terms with what she wanted to do. I don't really think the solution is more hotlines, even generalized ones because you have to want to get help every single time. I think the solution is to shine so much light on mental illness it loses all of the mystery and stigma and becomes as widely discussed and debated as the following 'mentally healthy' ways to kill yourself or someone else: - Euthanasia, or "mercy" killing because we are glad someone's suffering has ended - Abortion, literally deciding to end another person's life who is incapable of asking you not to And of course, the preferred method of suicide that most people will use: - a slow poison of shitty diets and deadly vices We never even discussed mental illness or even suicide in high school like we did ethical dilemmas.
tomaisthorpe 14y ago
We have a Nightline at University of Leeds for anyone to call for anything. It's a great thing for people who just need someone to talk to. Whether they're feeling suicidal or just a bit stressed over exams. And the number is on the back of every student ID, which means anyone can find their number really easily.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

pfortuny 14y ago

Whenever your depression (or anything similar) symptoms are relieved and another person is helping you, that is enough to get you at least 'just a bit' further away from suicide. And, really, this cannot be easily accounted for. The problem with human interactions and ease of anxiety is that you will probably never be able to get a proper and useful metric. I'd say most depressive people would not fill a form after calling any help hotline.

aes256 14y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

hihuhiahei 14y ago

ARE YOU %100 SURE that he committed suicide????? Wnat is that?

ufo 14y ago
He hanged himself.

jrogers65 14y ago

The most effective immediate suicide prevention available is a surprising one. It's Ketamine. It takes effect very rapidly and the anti-depressant effects persist for months from a single dose. It's a wonder how SSRI's are in wide use when there are far more effective treatments which have been around since the 60's. Marketing and business are to blame for that, I suppose. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251220.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251220.php There are also some novel NMDA antagonists (same mechanism as Ketamine) in the works, which come with less perception alterations, the names of which escape me, which will change things for the better for a lot of people.

objclxt 14y ago
Ketamine may be effective, but is it useful for 'immediate' prevention? I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'immediate'. Someone already posted a link here suggesting a significant number of suicides are impulsive, and many people have planned suicides without their friends or family having any idea. I can't see how in many of these situations a controlled drug is going to help. We could only administer ketamine to those who exhibit depression or suicidal tendencies, but sadly these signs are not always visible or picked up.
- jrogers65 14y ago
  I meant in the context of someone about to commit suicide and calling a helpline. Send someone over, give them an injection and you've bought a few months of time during which they can recieve therapy. A lot of failed suicide attempts tend to get repeated. It would solve that issue very well.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

sergiotapia 14y ago

I kind of find it in poor taste to post this link at this point in time. Just my thoughts.

rooshdi 14y ago
The intention is to help others contemplating the same thing. Who knows, this may help one person out there turn their life around.
Maxious 14y ago
It is part of media regulations in many countries/organisations that reporting of suicide must be done in certain ways to reduce the negative effect that may have on potentially vulnerable people. A full list of countries that enforce this on a national level is available from the International Association for Suicide Prevention http://www.iasp.info/media_guidelines.php http://www.iasp.info/media_guidelines.php One of these requirements is any story involving to suicide or mental health must be accompanied by information about 24-hour crisis support services http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/adding-helplines-to-stories/why-add-help-seeking-information-to-a-story http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/adding-helplines-t...
ieze 14y ago
It's well meaning. "Hearing about a suicide seems to make those who are vulnerable feel they have permission to do it" -- David Phillips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide Unfortunately http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/16e15s/i_transcribed_kurt_cobains_suicide_note_ive_never/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/16e15s/i_transcribed_... was posted and front-paged yesterday. Google returns a local suicide prevention line number when you google suicide. Perhaps social media sites should discourage posting on the subject at the time of submission, or trying to wrap such content with reminder to the readership that they matter.

ghc 14y ago

I'm glad this is on the front page. Often when I learn of the suicide of someone I knew or respected I briefly experience idle "sympathetic" suicidal thoughts. This always leaves me shaken because we've all been taught to seek help immediately if we ever experience suicidal thoughts, but I know I'm not depressed, even if life is indeed very difficult sometimes. I imagine someone truly depressed and suicidal might experience a very strong impulse to act on their thoughts upon hearing news like this.

netrus 14y ago
In Germany we call it Werther Effekt (following Goethe's novel Die Leiden des Jungen Werther). Public attention to a suicide often triggers additional suicides.

Tichy 14y ago

I'd be curious to know what they teach the people manning the phones. Sometimes I ponder volunteering, but honestly, atm anybody talking to me would probably be more suicidal afterwards than before. Are there even universal things to say? Perhaps somebody religious needs to hear "god loves you no matter what", whereas I for example found solace in thinking about atheism and evolution theory. Probably the first talks are not even about such things, rather about convincing the person that most problems are solvable and that they can get help?

andrewtbham 14y ago
I was a counselor at one and yes they will train you on what to say. Generally, you will be trained not to give a lot of advice, but to do reflective listening. It was interesting for me and has helped a lot in my personal life.

deleted 14y ago

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wissler 14y ago

"Please don’t pathologize this story." -- Aaron's friend, Lawrence Lessig http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bull...

pfortuny 14y ago
Well, with due respect, we are as entitled as Lawrence to give an explanation and try to find an answer. What to Lawrence may be 'a reason' to many of us is not: you are valuable even in jail. So we try to find a better explanation than 'as he did not want to go to jail, he decided to kill himself', which is quite simplistic.
- wissler 14y ago
  With all due respect, I think your interpretations are inane, but if Lessig can't convince you of that, I'm sure there's nothing else I can say that will help you understand.

ameen 14y ago

I've always wondered why suicide is so common among us young programmers. (Ilya, Bill Zeller, etc) As programmers we're able to control how our code behaves, but life on the other hand has too many variables, most of which are beyond one's control - and the only thing one can control is their lives. The will to live can do amazing wonders, but when that will fades -- life doesn't make sense, its just a waste of time and resources.

tomjen3 14y ago
Suicide is extremely common among males (compared to women, men end up killing them at self at something like a 10:1 ratio, even though more women than men try to kill them self), particularily young males. Guess who is most likely to be a programmer?
- riffraff 14y ago
  are you sure about that 10:1 figure? Looking at the available UE data from eurostat[0] the ratio would seem more 4:1, which obviously still confirms your point, I am just curious about your source. [0] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/refreshTableAction.do?tab=table&plugin=0&pcode=tps00122&language=en http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/refreshTableAction.do?t...
  - tomjen3 14y ago
    My memory must be out of wack.

navs 14y ago

I know it doesn't seem feasible but I do wish we could have an "International Suicide Prevention lifeline". When I lived in Fiji, I would often look on the web for some place to call. I often settled for irc chatrooms. It's sad that my first ever foray into irc was because I was lonely and wanted company. I'm lucky that New Zealand, where I live currently, has great support.

j_anon 14y ago

http://www.facebook.com/celebraterecovery/posts/10150473844015946 http://www.facebook.com/celebraterecovery/posts/101504738440...