BETTER “SUICIDE PREVENTION”? My new group project assignment in psychiatry history class yielded nearly half a dozen groups who chose to research and discuss issues pertaining to suicide. This, plus decades of varied experiences dealing with first-hand situations, including, within the past year, interacting closely with an entire group of recently suicidal — to widely varied degrees — people, means my interest in the subject is informed and substantial. I’m reassured to see that even “experts” (who often ruin any hope of getting anything right aside from the prevention of lawsuits) seem to have managed to participate harmlessly in putting together these tremendously insightful and helpful videos. They are for a youthful audience. I would absolutely include additional perspectives for older audiences (they have more diverse life experiences and entrenched beliefs, though, if I were to judge only by this campaign, the kids are actually more perceptive). Even the millennials' campaign might benefit from increased sensitivity to the notion that many sufferers may not be surrounded by buddy groups of minor celebrities who know all the most current and widely condoned ways to ask after another’s well-being. Nonetheless, it’s the best start to these types of conversations I’ve seen. Whatever intentional efforts supposedly go on here at our university to “prevent suicide” (they understand that means helping people who want to die feel MORE hopeful about their lives, more valued, and more heard, so that they wish, instead, to stay alive, right???) is so, so far inferior to this ad campaign — if not acutely counterproductive — as to be reckless.
I should add that these are excellent sources for viewers who are not, themselves, actively suicidal. They normalize and make accessible a topic that is often just taboo. Here it's almost light and an opening for life-affirming conversations. An actual suicidal person, however, would need to be far, far more cautious. My one concern would be that someone in real danger would watch these, then go out and “ask for help” only to find all the wrong people and feel worse than they did before! They might find themselves hunted down by authorities, stripped of their legal rights, treated like criminals, then ostracized and ignored, all in some misguided protocol to “save their passion for living”? They’ll feel far worse if these videos led them to expect reliable concern or interest from others. It’s a crucial, vitally crucia, time to be able to rely on yourself because other people don’t know how to behave properly yet (perhaps they never will). DO NOT get drawn into thinking they will help you in logical or reliable ways.
