With the media 'hilighting' gun suicides now, I expect the rate of public suicides to increase.

[joshcryer]

Simply for the fact that it is becoming "notable" and "newsworthy." People who commit or attempt suicide are in a highly depressed and mentally instable state. They may feel "rewarded" for doing something "notable" and thus go ahead and do it.

Granted, the economy is probably far more responsible than anything else, but I think the media is a contributing factor.

What makes me think of it is this story about a young man who killed himself at a Watchmen screening: http://www.kval.com/news/local/42527232.html

What was he thinking other than "I will go out in a really epic, notable, way"? Most suicides are actually private matters, people want to kill themselves, alone, in privacy, some people even let others know what they did (such as putting a note on the door of the room that they killed themselves in as to potentially avoid people seeing a really bad mess).

These public, execution-style, mass murder, suicides, are quite ego driven, a result, I believe, of the media hilighting and making them somehow "more" than they are.

[hlthe2b]

1. I really wouldn't equate mass murder or murder-suicides

with individual suicide--even those done in a very public way. People who kill themselves in a public way maybe hoping to send a statement through their death (e.g., the monks who died through self-immolation in protest of the Vietnam War) or to bring attention to society's woes (lack of health care)... While you might have strong feelings about suicide in general, I certainly wouldn't compare individual suicide, no matter how public, with those who take out others with them. Arguably, not everyone who commits suicide is depressed and mentally unstable--again reference the monks and their most dramatic of protest statements.

[Ladyhawk]

2. Agree.

Many (most?) people who are suicidal withdraw from society because they cannot mask their pain anymore. The final act is the final withdrawal.

My cousin committed suicide. He certainly didn't do it for notoriety. He did it because he didn't want to be in pain any longer.

[joshcryer]

3. I don't think that people who take out others with them are in a significantly different state.

There are some, like the Pitt. shooter who killled 3 officers who had no intention of killing themselves, they're not who I'm addressing.

I'm addressing those whose full and complete intention is to die at the end, publicly. They have, in my opinion, a very similar psychology. Those who kill their kids and then off themselves are not significantly different from those who just off themselves, in my opinion. They have the same dispair, only they might lack the regard for other human life (or actually regard higher depending on your perspective; a parent that takes their kids with them to death could believe that it's the best thing for them, there have been failed attempts where this was the defense). Those who go on a killing spree, likewise, endure the same kind of dispair and in most situations we can see that they were out to "correct some wrong," and "inact justice."

In the end though they *do* kill themselves.

[hlthe2b]

4. I generally disagree ..

Certainly there may be some from each group that have similar motivations and psychological "make-ups," but despite these similarities, I still find the two groups likely quite different.

I also do not agree that everyone who commits suicide does so for irrational reasons, nor lack of effective anti-depressants (or psych support). Having said that, I do believe we are at risk of a massive explosion of suicides among those who, as you say, feel so desperate that they would benefit from effective social and psych support systems. Just not everyone falls into that category.