Man jumps from Barlow overpass into oncoming traffic

[Env-Consultant]

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/mobile/dee...lays-1.3297764

“There was an unknown male who jumped from the bridge from the Barlow Trail overpass onto northbound Deerfoot Trail travel lanes," said Acting Sgt. David Dentandt.

Saw the accident reconstruction van in the northbound lane on my way to work. Curious as to why nobody else covered it - the only place I found the story was on CTV after googling Calgary Deerfoot and clicking News.

[rage2]

Press rarely covers suicide.

[adam c]

Because it was a suicide, most agencies don't report on them

[ExtraSlow]

I find it strange that our society considers suicide in particular, and mental illness in general, a pretty taboo topic.

It's my opinion that the societal taboo actually makes it a lot worse, although I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist or doctor.

[chongkee_]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
I find it strange that our society considers suicide in particular, and mental illness in general, a pretty taboo topic.

It's my opinion that the societal taboo actually makes it a lot worse, although I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist or doctor.

They don't usually report it to avoid copycats, not because they don't want to talk about it.

[ExtraSlow]

Yeah, I get their reasoning, I just don't agree with it.

Suicide is a symptom of temporary or longer term mental illness. It's not contagious. However, when a person is experiencing severe depression, which is an illness that can sometimes lead to suicide, feeling like you are alone, and that others don't understand your situation, can make things much worse.

[ExtraSlow]

Think of it this way, we actively gather and report statistics of how many people die from cancer, but not from depression or mental illness. that's fucked.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
I find it strange that our society considers suicide in particular, and mental illness in general, a pretty taboo topic.

Suicide is not taboo.

Reporting on specific cases is.

[darthVWader]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
It's not contagious.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...nied-help.html

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
It's not contagious.

I don't know if I would call it "contagious", but mental health issues (especially the "temporary" ones not caused by actual permanent issues with the brain) certainly are affected by societal issues and peer groups.

I do not have statistics, but would like to see if people who know someone who have committed suicide are more likely to have done it themselves. I am willing to bet that you would see a correlation. Similiar to how you are more likely to get divorced if you know people who have been divorced.

[lasimmon]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Yeah, I get their reasoning, I just don't agree with it.

Suicide is a symptom of temporary or longer term mental illness. It's not contagious. However, when a person is experiencing severe depression, which is an illness that can sometimes lead to suicide, feeling like you are alone, and that others don't understand your situation, can make things much worse.

I believe there are studies showing that suicide rates have gone down since most media stopped reporting on them.

I don't have time to look but seem to recall hearing that.

[austic]

Heard it was after the tables closed at the casino

[A790]

Originally posted by lasimmon


I believe there are studies showing that suicide rates have gone down since most media stopped reporting on them.

I don't have time to look but seem to recall hearing that.

Some evidence to support your statements:

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/hs/medic...ndTheMedia.pdf

http://jech.bmj.com/content/57/4/238.full

[A790]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Think of it this way, we actively gather and report statistics of how many people die from cancer, but not from depression or mental illness. that's fucked.

I think it's one thing to talk about statistics and other metrics associated with suicide and another thing to report when suicides happen.

There are studies that suggest the latter is harmful (see my post above).

[Buster]

Cousin is one of the managers at the 911 call centre. They are taking suicide/attempt calls constantly.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Think of it this way, we actively gather and report statistics of how many people die from cancer, but not from depression or mental illness. that's fucked.

As far as I know we do gather stats on suicides.

The media does such a poor job handling even the most benign news stories. I don't want to see how they'd handle a suicide case.

Also if a person attempts suicide and survives would it be beneficial to their recovery to have their incident (whether named or not) plastered all over the tv, print news and internet? We all know names eventually get leaked so how is this person supposed to put together their fractured self worth when they have all this attention on them?

The whole copy cat issue is a whole other thing. People in mental states like that do things we wouldn't dream of. These people are seen as having "courage" to actually go through with it

[Feruk]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Think of it this way, we actively gather and report statistics of how many people die from cancer, but not from depression or mental illness. that's fucked.

Depression and mental illness isn't what actually kill you though. If a depressed guy blows his head off, the cause of death is gun, not depression. Kinda hard to cover.

[ercchry]

I think the main reason they don't cover it is cause it would create a platform for those that want to make a statement, there for not only more attempts would be made... but more exciting and potentially taking bystanders with them. Like a one up'ing situation

[ExtraSlow]

Huh, seems like a lot of beyonders have given this quite a bit of thought, probably more than me.

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Huh, seems like a lot of beyonders have given this quite a bit of thought, probably more than me.

It's pretty much all based on the CDC press recommendations and the fact that prominantly reporting suicides causes an uptick in suicide attempts. So most media outlets now follow the following recommendations to try to limit this effect.

http://afsp.org/wp-content/uploads/2...mendations.pdf