I was a telephone volunteer for the Suicide Prevention Service of Santa Cruz County in the late 1980s. It is common for suicides to happen in clusters whose nu

I was a telephone volunteer for the Suicide Prevention Service of Santa Cruz County in the late 1980s. It is common for suicides to happen in clusters whose numbers cannot be explained by the clustering which does indeed happen in random number distributions. Having experienced suicidal depression for a number of years, and having attempted it several times, I can speak from experience as to why the clustering occurs: profoundly depressed people find creativity difficult. Suppose you wanted to kill yourself, were quite desperate to make it all end. But to do so you'd have to obtain the means of your own destruction. That's pretty hard to do, when you can't even get off the couch to make your breakfast. There are all manner of ways that we could take our lives, but they don't occur to most people. Having a specific mechanism suggested to use - where the "suggestion" is provided by someone who does take their own life - provides us the mental wherewithal to obtain it ourselves. It is for this reason that groups such as I once volunteered for, advise the press not to name the specific means use, when reporting on suicides.