Ask HN: What do you know about Suicide Prevention? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do you know about Suicide Prevention?

5 pointsandrei-akopian6 comments

After staring at some "suicide education videos" that for me personally go in one ear and out the other, I realized I know nothing about suicide.

I know that more people commit suicide than are murdered, so suicide is a pretty big issue in 2024. But how effective are the suicide prevention programs? And why do people commit suicide anyway? I don't think I (truly) understand the causes.

I tried searching around, and found only a few unclear (to me) studies that claimed their programs were effective. I have a feeling like all these programs have side effects or are not a permanent solution.

The way those "suicide prevention easter eggs" are plastered everywhere by big tech, I am not getting a feeling like any of the "suicide prevention people" truly care about the people they are claiming to help, and most of it is just institutions trying to look good.

I have a hunch like the method against suicide is having actual support and people/friends who care about you, not babysitters who do it for a job. (Peer pressuring out of depression if you will.)

Everything I came across was really creepy "virtual" (as in digital) suicide education programs, with no clear results or effects. Just a bunch of fancy words on a website, if I didn't know they are a serious agency, I would have dismissed them as a typical bloated website.

I want to find someone who is actually proud of saving a tone of people over the years. Not the buzzword stuff.

I'm fascinated by the large drop in England's overall suicide rates when the country switched from coal gas (containing carbon monoxide) to natural gas (much less lethal). It's pretty clear evidence that many suicides are impulsive acts, and simply making it a bit more difficult is sufficient to dissuade some people from trying.

Here's a bit more on that history: https://gizmodo.com/why-have-people-stopped-committing-suici...

Not sure we should spend so more time and money on inconveniencing the suicidal than we do treating the reasons they’re suicidal, but sure, it’s a help.

I think suicide prevention programs are well intentioned, but a lot of them do seem to be just lip service of well-intentioned people who don’t really know what they’re doing, or alternatively, are trying there best, but are the ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.

Why do people get suicidal in the first place? Is it issues of domestic abuse/family abuse, or trauma? Is it issues of poverty, low income, job insecurity? Is it issues of mood disorders? And if it is mood disorders, are there other social issues (like some of the ones I mentioned above) that precede the mood disorder?

Because really, to prevent suicide, you’d have to address the root cause of what drives people to commit suicide. I think there are a lot of social issues that lead people to commit suicide and to prevent suicide, people would actually have to start addressing the issues, instead of addressing the symptoms of the issue.

I'd be skeptical that any videos or educational programs would help someone who is in crisis and contemplating suicide. Like you mention, actual support from real people who care is probably necessary.

Suicide hotlines are the primary place to find a real person who can listen, if someone doesn't feel safe seeking support from anyone in their life, which can happen for a variety of reasons.

The effectiveness of hotlines is still under debate I'm sure, but there are tons of studies that I'm sure are worth looking into, if this is an area of interest of yours and you want to do some reading.

Satisfaction and Mental Health Outcomes Associated with a Large Regional Helpline https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8749345/

Like another commenter mentioned, speaking to someone who has volunteered for a suicide prevention hotline would be the best way to get closer to first-hand knowledge of the subjective experience of trying to help prevent suicide.

If you want to understand how well suicide prevention programs work, try being suicidal and calling the number plastered on bridges and railway level crossings and waiting and waiting for someone to answer, which they don’t because it’s a Sunday and and you’re in a country where everyone gets the day off because of a historical bias towards a purported god that also isn’t there to answer.

By the way, a lot of people experience intrusive suicidal thoughts simply because those are a significant symptom of almost every major mental health disorder that’s associated with childhood trauma. The “why” they do so can be chalked up to either a bug in the human brain’s survival mechanism or bug in how society responds to childhood trauma. I lean towards the latter.

> I want to find someone who is actually proud of saving a tone of people over the years.

See if you can talk to somebody who has staffed a suicide prevention (telephone) hotline for a decade or so.

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