Reducing or just redirecting suicide?

[Inigo_Montoya]

@Slithy_Tove

*Jumpers at the Tacoma Narrows bridges never come from Seattle. They may be at their lowest ebb, but they still have enough self-respect to stay above the Pierce County line.

Damn! I mean, good point and all but, wow.

[Bozuit]

@Octarine

I’ve often heard that suicide by jumping is the worst way to go, because a large percentage of people change their minds after they jump - but I’ve always wondered how this is known. Do they give all prospective jumpers a questionnaire to fill out as they fall?

I think another factor is that you will probably die but not necessarily instantly. You may just suffer broken bones or other injuries that cause you to drown or die of hypothermia in the water.

[8o88y]

@Canadjun

Interesting. To clarify my concerns - I had thought that suicides would simply go for something easy and convenient; if a bridge ceased being convenient they would just pick something else for their spontaneous act (so saying that most people unsuccessfully attempting suicide never try again isn’t really relevant to my concerns; it is that one attempt I am puzzling over). Clearly you have shown me that there is a lot more to it than that. I’ll have to muse over it some more.

I think your view would apply more to impulsive suicides and cry-for-help suicides than to more dedicated suicides who may have spent some time thinking about how to get the job done.

[Slithy_Tove]

Per the thread title, I’ve heard that successful suicide prevention is often a matter of persuading the despondent person to postpone the act rather than to somehow make a lifelong commitment against self-destruction.

And my wife’s death, 8 years ago next month, was anything but yielding to “the imp of the perverse.” She methodically hoarded her medication (muscle relaxants,) took her dog to the pound (we shared a morbid sense of humor, and I’m convinced she was mindful of Marie Prevost), and settled herself not in her bed but where someone looking through the blinds would see her. And, like most suicides, she left no note. (That in particular was painful for our daughter to bear, but I hope that in time she will accept that it is up to us to be understanding, not up to her mother to explain). It was a very bad time for us, but I do respect her for not making it a piece of theater for strangers.

[Melbourne]

@Quercus

Well, I think to be fair we can ascribe failed attempts to more than just pure incompetence on the part of depressed people. I think there’s probably quite a bit of ambivalence leading to half-hearted attempts as well as intentionally not-succeeding ‘cries for help’; I wouldn’t call either of those incompetent.

I’m sure you aren’t meaning to suggest that these are “competent” ways to cry for help or to make a half-hearted attempt to live.

Tangential to the original question, but: More depressed people would live or would ask for help, but they are just too depressed.

[rjk]

A relevant poem, and one of the best, IMHO. Copied from here.

Resumé
By Dorothy Parker

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

[wevets]

@Voyager

The Dumbarton Bridge does have a pedestrian walkway. I’ve never heard of a suicide on it, though. It might be too low for people to be sure they’d die. I don’t recall the barrier being all that high.

I didn’t know that - I haven’t heard of people committing suicide on the Dumbarton, but wikipedia says it’s 85 ft above the water at the highest, so it seems like that would be possible.