[captainmuon]

Right, but it is really important that you follow up with psychological help.

Sometimes I wonder if suicide prevention measures like this just remove the last bit of agency that people have, and while they will live on, they will just suffer silently. Maybe suicides are not thoughtfully planned out, but they are often preceeded by a very long phase of suicidal thoughts and rumination, and sometimes fixation on specific methods (e.g. a certain bridge, or in this case a fan). Similarly, by not reporting on suicides you prevent some, but you basically take away their last voice. I don't know, I think it is a very hard dilemma.

[halfdan]

That is all assuming that all will remain suffering. How likely is that? It seems much more likely that some may look on this dark period in their life and be grateful they didn't go through with a suicide.

[tshaddox]

Surely that would depend greatly on the cause of the suicidal thoughts.

[3pt14159]

I've been severely depressed and borderline suicidal twice. The second time was worse than the first. Baking a single potato was the first sign I was pulling out of it. I could barely walk. It was bad. I prayed a lot, and I'm usually the pithy type with prayer.

The only reason I consider it borderline suicidal is that I had an internal rule to call 911 the first moment I started making plans and I think that kept my mind away from doing that because I didn't want to get checked into a mental hospital.

I cannot express to you just how happy I am to have held on. I am truly joyous again. It seemed impossible during the dark times.

I can't speak for everyone, I believe in free will to some extent, but I also believe that life is precious and sacred. Sometimes all someone needs to do is to just keep holding on and pushing through and that really easy to jump off of bridge that they have to walk by every day is not helping one bit.

Anyway, if anyone is reading this and is struggling like I have, please feel free to email me if you want advice or even if you just want someone to vent to.

[kkjjkgjjgg]

Being a student can be especially depressing, odds are that people will get better once they have that phase behind them.

[kwhitefoot]

I wonder if this is a bigger problem now than it was when I as a student forty five years ago. In those days a degree was not such a necessity as it is now but was even more worth having. Where and when (Exeter Uni. '74-'77) I studied the drop out rate in the first year was fairly high as people discovered that they were not suited to academic study, felt they had chosen the wrong subject, or were simply not capable. A noticeable minority didn't return after the Christmas holiday having done just one term.

The result was that the student body was composed to a greater degree of people who really wanted to be there doing what they were doing and to a slightly greater degree capable of doing it. I suspect that this would mean a slightly lesser incidence of depression.

I can easily imagine that a lot of students now also feel that they are unsuited to study but also feel that they must continue with the degree because the piece of paper they receive at the end is so important now because so many jobs demand it. So instead of dropping out and, perhaps, taking a vocational course instead they continue studying a subject that is beyond them or perhaps merely uninteresting.

Of course this is just speculation that seems plausible to me. Are there any good and approachable statistical analyses on the subject?

[watwut]

Some suicides are after long rumination, others are momentary impulse. Sometimes triggered by psychosis, bout of paranoia, manic phase, PTSD or something other of the sort acting out. There are people who have multiple suicidal attempts, but from what I recall from stats many try once and that is it.

Following may be biased sample, but when I read mental health forums a while ago there were people who wanted to try suicide in the past and were glad it did not worked out.