Quote from: Rassah on November 02, 2011, 12:55:47 AM

I did read them all. They all say the same thing. I also don't trust suicide statistics much.

Why? That's not a smartass question, I promise. Why do you not trust the statistics? I don't think I've been linking to any controversial organizations; if I have, it was unintentionally, and I'll find some non-affiliated ones.

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I'm not a psochology expert, as I've only had a bunch of classes, read a bunch of articles, and treated it as a hobby. I suppose you are an expert on suicide? Why? Me, besides reading about it, I've had extensive personal experiences. Not something I like to talk about though.
And fine, I'll keep the goal posts the same. People who threaten suicide don't go through with it. I'll stand by that.

I would not call myself an expert, no. I've also taken psychology classes, and been in therapy.

I'm actually wondering about something here. I'm wondering if some of your personal experiences don't agree with the statistics, which is why you then don't believe them. That is, when it was someone close to you who was suicidal, he or she did not choose to talk about it, because it was too painful for him or her to share very openly. So when you see someone else talking about it, your internal thought process is "well, if they were really suicidal, they would react more like (insert name here)."

It's understandable, but it's not definitive. Life isn't really one-size-fits-all like that. I hope whatever experience(s) you've had weren't too painful. I've had some experiences, too, and I think one of the reasons I've been particularly fiery in this thread is that I've seen some very real damage caused by exactly this myth.

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And fine, I'll keep the goal posts the same. People who threaten suicide don't go through with it. I'll stand by that.

Okay. I'd like to clarify one thing, here, if that's okay. Plenty of people commit or attempt suicide without ever vocalizing it first; I'm not implying they don't. Some people, in speaking about it, are able to get the help they need in order to not attempt. And I'll grant you that there might be a percentage that uses "I MIGHT AS WELL JUST KILL MYSELF" as the ultimate drama trump card; some people just suck. Having said that: I would say the majority of people who say "I have been thinking about suicide" will, if they are left unhelped, proceed to attempting -- the 70% statistic sounds about right.

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Off hand, my not serious citations are www.secondlife.com, www.furaffinity.net, www.devientart.com, and a slew of other places frequented by lonely antisocial furs and/or nerds. I'll do some more research later when I get home. I'm not sure I can find something that literally says that people who talk about suicide can be dismissed out of hand, though. Would a citation that says something like those who threaten suicide don't do it, and those who do don't really talk about it? Do you need 100% for both statistics, or is a high enough percentage ok?

I hang out with a lot of nerds, too. Finding connection and space online is good. Finding a place where you can talk about your fears of hurting yourself? Even better. And that might even work at making the 70% into 65% or 60% or one day, I hope, 0%. Because a lot of people talk about suicide because they're having those thoughts, and they're scared, and reaching out for reasons not to go through with it. I hope more people can find them.

I totally don't need 100%. I'd settle for something that says a clinical trial or a citation says that most people who threaten or talk about suicide never attempt it, and most people who attempt have never talked about it. I'd accept 51% as "most," even. And I'm willing to say that because I've never seen any study that gets anywhere near that. As I said earlier: plenty of people talk about it and don't attempt, and plenty of people commit but never talk about it first, but the Venn diagram of talking and attempting has a huge overlap in the middle.

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