I hope I don't get flamed, I'd like to slighly tease this out
I preface this with I agree that we are all adults, this is the internet, and this is my opinion only
I'm not advocating to shut sasu down
I hope you find peace no matter what you decide
I'm kinda worried/anxious about posting in the main recovery forums and feel a little safer here so hope y'all don't mind
thanks for being a safe space
feel free to engage if you wish
Also not gonna tag clouds busting for similar reason to lrkin
hope you are well and thanks for engaging in this discussion so far
This is an oversimplification, and just some random dude on the internets opinion. this is not medical advice
In psych there is something called the "4 Ps"
Predisposing, preciptating, perpetuating and protective factors
Used by some, in conjuction to the bio-psycho-social-cultural model for formulation
Predisposing factors e.g. "genetic vulnerability" for depression/suicidality, childhood abuse, head trauma etc
Sasu is not a predisposing factor to suicidality
What people don't realize is that this site didn't cause people to kill themselves
Precipitating factors (i.e a trigger e.g. current abuse, hunger, fear, bullying, fired from work, break up etc... a really shitty day)
I would argue
(on balance) Sasu is not a precipating factor
Perpetuating factors eg. things that make the suicidality last longer, or can stop it from getting better
e.g. social isolation, bad sleep, chronic pain etc.
I would suggest engaging with sasu suicide forums can make suicidality worse for some
(or atleast for me) e.g. further desensitisation of suicidal ideation, learning about methods, watching videos of people hanging themselves (or finding links to otherwebsites where I can find them)
I think I framed this as "self-harming the mind" -- I don't cut, but when I read some of the post on the suicide forum/watch videos... when im dysregulated it does give me calm
I (try) not to engage with the suicide side of the forms for that reason... can be hard ngl and I'm not perfect in my own rules
I think this perpetuating factor is where the media (and scienific literature) is concerned about -- and hot take, I think their concern have merit
Again not advocating to take this site down.
I think to give anology to this, is the (now taken down) forum pro-ana, for eating disorders
There newer version of the site, but the premise is similar
places to post calorie count
post your bmi
what to eat
what diet works etc
there is recovery on this fourm too ofc i'm just trying to show an anology
and yes i know with ED its not about the food, often about parental abuse, anxiety depression etc and the forum does not cause the ed, might make it harder to recover
An extension of this anology is how instagram is being sued in USA about it's impact as a platform on (youth) mental health
for it's addictive design... but now we're going down a rabbit hole of tech
i used to work as a health IT consultant haha this is my specialist domain (:
i'm getty silly tired now probably need to stop editing this post, it's past 3am
please dont flame me =)
And yes, hats off to the mods on this site, you do an amazing job and it's hard work, truely
Protective factors e.g. friends, medications etc that protect against suicide
I think the recovery forum on Sasu is a protective factor
SaSu exists because of gaps in spaces that allow ppl to discuss suicide openly without shame or paternalism or coercion. My question is, how do we create a space where people can openly discuss their suicidal ideations without risk of punishment/threats to autonomy/civil liberty infringement yet also don't feed hopeless narratives that can unintentionally risk trusting a person has assessed all possible options without properly assessing such a thing first because "pro choice"
I think knowing you're not alone on the journey that is suicidality has helped me immesnly and i wouldn't know how to open up to my friends/medical team without being able to explore this space first
Thanks everyone with engaging with the recovery forums =)
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Anyway that's my two cents
hope everyone is well