Something to think about when reporting on suicide. Humans are very sensitive to information that tells us what's normal, and what's not normal. Which is to say: it's easy for our brains to translate "x is on the rise" to "everyone is doing it."
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there's a study from the national parks that illustrated this (in a less serious way). Reminding visitors that precious petrified wood is stolen in large quantities every year actually leads to more theft https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/winter/psw_2006_winter001.cialdini.pdf …
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presumably because it lead to thoughts of "o well, everyone is doing it, why shouldn't I." With suicide. Yes tragically it is on the rise, and it's the 10th leading cause of death. But everyone is not doing it. About 16 in 100,000 people die this way.
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it's a large enough number that many of have been effected by suicide in some way (because no one is an island). But it's rare. And it ought to be rarer.
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The suicide prevention resource center has a helpful guideline on this.pic.twitter.com/O47uVdrC3l
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more here https://www.sprc.org/sites/default/files/migrate/library/SafeMessagingrevised.pdf … The language here is tricky because we can't ignore the upward trends, or the recent high-profile tragedies. Hopefully, just being mindful of the language you use can help.
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