Take a look at this discussion group on suicide

I have come across a Google discussion group in which people post messages discussing why they want to “Catch the Bus” the best methods to use (CO from portable barbecues in a small room is a current favourite), etc.

You can find this site at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.suicide.methods

I am curious as to what other dopers think of these messages. Are these people for real, or are they just seeking attention, or what? Do some of them actually go ahead and do it? Do you think such sites should be stopped by Google or by law?

I think many of them are for real, but the vast majority are just “dabbling” in the subject of suicide instead of actually performing it.

Absolutely not.

How bizarre that a culture has arisen there with its own phrases and acronyms such as CTB for “catch the bus” as a euphemism. Obviously these folks must be hanging around a bit for that to happen.

Stopped by law? No, that’d be a curtailment of free speech. Stopped by Google? Well, that’s up to them, really. If they don’t want a suicide methods group, then they’re perfectly within their rights to ban it. Even having it exist for them is probably bad PR, assuming people other than the members give a crap.

That is the whole point of the expression “Catch the Bus”. Many of us have a feeling that ending our lives, that self-liberation from our existence, is a desirable option. But it is not easy to make that decision. The Bus analogy implies that the opportunity will present itself over and over, and that you may eventually “get on that bus”.

First of all, society, by its attitudes and laws, makes self-liberation very dificult. Except for states where guns are readily available, just getting the means to CTB can be difficult and in some jurisdictions, even discussing it is illegal. It is very easy to mak a mistake and to do youself great harm without actually dying.

Some of these posters admit they have been skuling around the site for months (as have I). It is as if they are looking for options, weighing the possibilities. Every now and then, a poster announces that all is in readiness and they will go ahead with it.

Sometimes they come back to say tht the attempt failed or that they did not “get on the bus” at the last moment, but sometimes they simply stop posting and we never hear from them again. Does that mean they succeeded? The ironic thing is that those who succeed will never post again to tell us how it worked (unless, I suppose, they have somone else do it after they have left, which sometimes happens).

All we can do is learn from failures, such as those people who put themselves into days and weeks of torment by taking somehing that was not strong enough to kill them but strong enough to do them harm.

But yes, the urge to self-liberation is often a contradictory one, and has always been so. Note the poet John Keats who says (italics mine):

“Darkling I listen; and for many a time
I have been *half in love * with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain”

Why only “haf in love”? That is what I want to understand from that message site.

It’s a News Group. News Groups are decades older than Google. Google does not own it or control it, they merely redistribute it like so many thousands other servers around the world.

No. I don’t have to like it. But free speech. Anyway there’re worse news groups.

::deep breath::

Disclaimer: I am a mental health practitioner, and have both personal and professional experience with the subject of suicide.

  • Some of them may be for real, just like someone writing to the Hemlock society for information may be for real, but having read just a few of the posts I think the majority of them are (non-professional opinion) pathetic emo teens looking for attention, just like the new breed of “cutters” that has arisen in the past few years. Look at the thread for Doesn’t Matter… how many of those posts are “OMG, NOOOOOOO!!!”? They’re suprised? What the hell are they there for, if not to take themselves out? One would think they have the basic concept of “I’m joining a support group that’s going to help me take the dirt nap. People are going to be disappearing from this group as they employ the suggested methods.”

  • I’m sure some of them do it, but I would imagine that of those, probably more than half do it accidentally. Look at the person who’s already attempted three times- they’re not really trying, but they may just stumble on a lethal combination at some point.

  • I’m a huge proponent of the Hemlock Society. I’m an advocate for assisted suicide. I believe that if someone really, really wants to take themselves out, they will, regardless of intervention. I think sites like this are disgusting, but necessary. In an ideal world I’d like to see a site that was tightly regulated, so stupid-ass ideas like “I know car accidents are expensive, but how about a bike accident? Wait for a rainy day and find a convenient way to say “slide” in front of a truck? Or off a steep cliff?” don’t get circulated as possibilities.

First, I’ll tackle the legal question. As repugnant as I might find the discussion, I certainly don’t think force of law should be used to stifle it. Of course, I imagine that the first time it makes the news that one of these people ‘self-liberated’ after a connection to this group, I’d almost expect Google to shut it down. And I suppose that this is their right.

I sort of find the concept of the group silly, but that’s no crime. Despite the OP’s contention in their follow-up post, it’s trivially easy to kill oneself, especially where the law is concerned. Most methods involve legal substances, or actions legal right up until the last few seconds. Attitudes are a different matter, and I can’t see why society would want to modify its basic ‘pro-life’ (no, not THAT pro-life) position.

I’m sure people join groups like these for all sorts of reasons, but I’d be willing to bet that a fair percentage of the membership finds it cathartic enough to discuss methods, in all their morbid detail, that they will never actually do the deed. And, as has been stated, there’s no good way to differentiate between those that ‘got better’ and those that are, even now, pining for the fjords.

IMO

Most of these people actually want attention/validation. They want people to say “Your suffering is great and it’s a wonder you lasted this long.”

its none of my business what someone wants to do with their own life.

Russian roulette?

With blanks?