Whoa Chris, please read the entire article. The main thesis is that there are two types of suicides, one that is passion-driven as distinct from those that are more calculated and premeditated. There appears to be a distinctly different psychological profile between people who chose one of these two options--with the passion-driven suicides dominated by those who are fairly healthy and high functioning but simply distraught and overwhelmed and want a quick fix. Those passion driven suicides make their decision very quickly and opt for a method that will be fast and deadly, as jumping or shooting oneself. They spend as little as an hour (70%) or even just 5 minutes (24%) between thought and fatal action. But surprisingly, those whose attempts failed usually do not try again. That is, they report mainly wanting a fast and sure escape from their pain but most don't really want to end their life and change their minds almost immediately after their unexpected failure.
Therefore, it behooves us to remove as an option fast and deadly ways out as those options are dominated by people who are not all that messed up but simply going through a very rough time. A relevant note is that the level of state gun ownerships is highly associated with % of suicides committed by shooting oneself. A friend of my son committed suicide in this manner and he fits the profile--a young man who was functioning quite well, had friends and family but was going through a crises that apparently he felt needed immediately resolution. From all I have learned about this case, he would be a classic example of a person who would have soon seen other ways out if he didn't own a gun. Joan Joan Warmbold Boggs [email protected] > All I can say is: What a horrendously awful (or, rather, > tendentiously-designed) study. Nothing makes a person a "jumping > suicide" risk, in particular. If jumping is viable option, one might > jump. If not, on will do something else. So they made it slightly more > difficult for people to jump, and then declared victory because fewer > people jumped. What about all the other possible was of committing > suicide? Did they all stay exactly level as well? All that happened is a > couple (and it is only a couple we are talking about here) of people > might have jumped decided to take pills or shoot themselves instead. > > Chris > -- > > Christopher D. Green > Department of Psychology > York University > Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > Canada > > > > 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 > [email protected] > http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ > > ========================== > > > > Beth Benoit wrote: >> >> >> >> Took me a while, but I finally found a NYTimes article that one of my >> students quoted in her paper, about a similar finding concerning two >> bridges in northwest Washington. Here's an excerpt from the story >> about suicide, with the link to follow: >> >> *"In Northwest* Washington stands a pretty neoclassical-style bridge >> named for one of the citys most famous native sons, Duke Ellington >> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/duke_ellington/index.html?inline=nyt-per>. >> Running perpendicular to the Ellington, a stones throw away, is >> another bridge, the Taft. Both span Rock Creek, and even though they >> have virtually identical drops into the gorge below about 125 feet >> it is the Ellington that has always been notorious as Washingtons >> suicide bridge. By the 1980s, the four people who, on average, leapt >> from its stone balustrades each year accounted for half of all jumping >> suicides in the nations capital. The adjacent Taft, by contrast, >> averaged less than two. >> >> After three people leapt from the Ellington in a single 10-day period >> in 1985, a consortium of civic groups lobbied for a suicide barrier to >> be erected on the span. Opponents to the plan, which included >> the National Trust for Historic Preservation >> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_trust_for_historic_preservation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, >> countered with the same argument that is made whenever a suicide >> barrier on a bridge or landmark building is proposed: that such >> barriers dont really work, that those intent on killing themselves >> will merely go elsewhere. In the Ellingtons case, opponents had the >> added ammunition of pointing to the equally lethal Taft standing just >> yards away: if a barrier were placed on the Ellington, it was not at >> all hard to see exactly where thwarted jumpers would head. >> >> Except the opponents were wrong. A study conducted five years after >> the Ellington barrier went up showed that while suicides at the >> Ellington were eliminated completely, the rate at the Taft barely >> changed, inching up from 1.7 to 2 deaths per year. Whats more, over >> the same five-year span, the total number of jumping suicides in >> Washington had decreased by 50 percent, or the precise percentage the >> Ellington once accounted for." >> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?pagewanted=print >> >> Beth Benoit >> >> Granite State College >> >> Plymouth State University >> >> New Hampshire >> >> >> --- >> >> You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>. >> >> To unsubscribe click here: >> http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=3639 >> <http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=3639> >> >> (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is >> broken) >> >> or send a blank email to >> leave-3639-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu >> <mailto:leave-3639-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> >> > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=49240.d374d0c18780e492c3d2e63f91752d0d&n=T&l=tips&o=3645 > or send a blank email to > leave-3645-49240.d374d0c18780e492c3d2e63f91752...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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