Suicide Contagion

Suicidal behavior is complex; many factors lead to someone taking their own life, some of which are almost impossible to do anything about as an outsider looking in. These factors include adverse life events followed by deep depression. Often, a person already experiencing suicidal thoughts or feelings may be pushed over the edge by a phenomenon known as suicide contagion. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines suicide contagion as the exposure to suicide or suicidal behaviors within one's family or peer group or through media reports of suicide that can result in an increase in suicide as well as suicidal behaviors. Contagion comes in clusters - suicides that occur close together, whether in time or location. Contagion is an increasingly severe issue that can be prevented only through education. To safely protect potential “victims,” we must understand where the exposure is coming from, reasons people contemplate suicide, and how to approach someone who may be suicidal. With so many personality suicides being prominently displayed, contagion turns self-destruction into more than just an idea.

When a person of high enough status, or a person close to home, takes their own life, it can sometimes lead to “copycat suicides.” These happen when one is aware of it, and in a way, identifies with the suicide. Our society has a strange habit of taking celebrity self-annihilation and highly publicizing it by releasing every grim detail of the person’s death. The most active source of exposure to suicide is media - social sites, newspapers, and televised broadcasts. Anthony Bourdain, an american celebrity chef, and author, hung himself while in France in June of 2018. His passing was very upsetting and impactful to the world given Kate Spade, an american fashion designer ,and businesswoman, had ended her life just three days before. Mitch Smith of The New York Times says, “Escalating suicide rates have affected nearly every demographic group and place, according to new federal data.” The area we see take a harder hit with contagion is the lower-income communities. Jacqueline Howard, a writer for CNN, explains, "Especially when you've got high-profile people who are successful and who the world views as having a lot going for them and they die by suicide, it can generate feelings of hopelessness.” With numerous personality suicides being prominently displayed, contagion turns self-destruction into more than just an idea.

When one feels broken and alone, dark thoughts seem to linger about the mind. Life may sometimes seem overwhelming and gloomy but it’s not a healthy response to implement a permanent solution to an almost always temporary issue. As Kate Spade would say, we sometimes find it hard to “Live colorfully - without blacks, whites, or grays”. It’s when we entertain these dark thoughts that self-annihilation becomes more and more attractive. “But suicide is more subtle than that. Suicide is a kind of fatal exhaustion. It knocks at your door not as a monster but as a healer making a house call. We have to invite it in. Spade held that red scarf in her hands, Bourdain held that bathrobe belt in his, and both thought, ‘This will do nicely,’” Richard Morgan with The Washington Post details. Many of those who pay the most attention to the prominent coverage are already considering the act. "If they're already struggling with thoughts of depression or risk of suicide, they're already trying to get information about how other people are experiencing it," said John Ackerman, suicide prevention coordinator in the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. With so many personality suicides being prominently displayed, contagion turns self-destruction into more than just an idea.

Staying quiet when you believe someone may be suicidal is just as bad as being the reason that put them there. Richard Morgan states, “Our language about suffering is suffused with cliches, and they don’t help.” Yes, we have the Suicide Prevention Line, but hearing a scripted pep talk leaves the caller feeling an empty empathy like they don’t matter. Morgan writes, “Empathy is not a cure for happiness. It is merely a commitment to assert that other people’s loneliness matters, that it is seen and heard and felt as much as possible.” In his landmark book, “The Savage God,” the English poet and critic A. Alvarez, who attempted suicide himself, wrote that suicide is “a closed world with its own irresistible logic.” He continued, “Once a man decides to take his own life, he enters a shut-off, impregnable but wholly convincing world where every detail fits and each incidence reinforces his decision.” With so many personality suicides being prominently displayed, contagion turns self-destruction into more than just an idea.

Our goal should be to make suicide less appealing. Currently, suicide is 250% more common than murder. What happens when we ignore those who walk amongst us suffering, losing a daily battle to their pending demise? We’ve let them fight alone. We’ve let them walk into a minefield unguarded and misguided. As a community, it is our job to notice when someone is going about their day with alarming detachment because suicide happens without notice and without interruption. Exposure only helps plant the seed of self-destruction further into a potential victim’s mind. We must educate those around us, especially our youth, to avoid further contagion.

Until next time,

A

Works Cited

Carey, Benedict. “Can One Suicide Lead to Others?” The New York Times

June 8, 2018

Howard, Jacqueline. “The Risk of 'Contagion' After Suicides is Real” CNN

June 22, 2018

Morgan, Richard. “Artificial concern for people in pain won’t stop suicide. Radical empathy might.” The Washington Post

June 15, 2018

Smith, Mitch. “5 Takeaways on America’s Increasing Suicide Rate” The New York Times

June 9, 2018