Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
13 Jan 2013, 8:53 a.m.
Preventing Suicide
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2013 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Valerie Aurora sensibly writes:
"For many depressed people, telling them 'You should talk to a friend!' is worse than useless advice and may actually make people more suicidal. I argue that we, as as society, should take more responsibility for making people's lives bearable, and focus on supporting more concrete ways to prevent suicide, like helping people contact professional help, supporting research and treatment of depression, and fighting for social justice."Among her recommendations: Fight stigmatization of mental illness.
