Posted on 05/13/2008 12:57:02 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Why the same things that attract millions of happy visitors to New York—the glamour, the skyline, the anonymity—also draw people from around the world to kill themselves here.
Stephen was no stranger to New York. He’d been to the city as a boy, and regularly came here for work now that he was in his twenties. A consultant, he’d take the train from his hometown several hours south of the city, stay from Monday to Friday, then return on the weekends. He loved New York, his mother, Judith, says. The energy, the people, figuring out the streets and subways. He often stayed at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.
As a teenager, Stephen had been prone to mood swings, Judith says, and after college he was given a diagnosis of clinical depression. He’d cut his wrists once, badly enough to be taken to the hospital. He’d begun taking medication and seeing a psychiatrist, but the doctor determined that Stephen hadn’t really wanted to kill himself—his cuts weren’t very deep. He eventually told Stephen’s parents that he was no longer a serious suicide risk.
Recently, Stephen seemed to be doing well. He earned good money and got solid evaluations at work. He owned a house, made investments, talked about his future. He dated and traveled to Fiji and Sri Lanka to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. He was still prone to bouts of depression, but “my coping skills are so much better now,” he told Judith.
On this rainy summer Friday, Stephen met Judith for lunch not far from where he’d grown up. Judith had been looking forward to their get-together, but she could see right away that Stephen was unnerved. “When one thing went wrong, it could mount up inside him,” Judith says.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
That's right on the nose. The straw that breaks the camel's back can be something so small and unimportant to anyone, but it becomes the whole world in the mind of the suicidal.
At least screwballs who jump off buildings ain’t giving guns a bad name.
Yep. I remember one spectacularly self-destructive decision I made back in my pre-medication days. It was because my ex-girlfriend gave me the cat we’d raised together. She said she didn’t want anything that I’d had a part in living in her house. Sounds dumb, right? To my addled mind, however, it was like the entire Universe giving me the Finger. The aftereffects of the bad decision I made in the wake of getting back that cat still linger to this day.
(The cat was crushed by a guy in a van in front of our house a few weeks later, incidentally. The son-of-a-bitch smashed her flat and didn’t even slow down to see what he’d hit.)
Depression KILLS. I thank God there are drug therapies available today that make life possible for people with depressive disorders.
What do you all think about this?
On the one hand, it is a freedom issue. If somebody wants access to the rail of the Golden Gate Bridge, who are we to say no?
On the other hand, simply making jumping off that bridge inconvenient may save some lives.
Of course, I find the low rail and the expansive view, along with the certain knowledge that I could throw myself off, part of the appeal of the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course I would never do so, but I defy anybody to walk all the way across that bridge without thinking of jumping off at least once.
Here’s your chance...
I have the same feeling every time I stand beside Niagara Falls or anywhere along the river. I have no desire to commit suicide and never have, but there is simply something mesmerizing about all that rushing water heading over that magnificant cliff....
Mental health groups had been petitioning the city for ages for a 'suicide barrier' to be placed along the Golden Gate Bridge, but the motion never passes at city hall.
It's a major tourist attraction and the overwhelming number of visitors are normal people who aren't going to jump off the bridge. Why spoil their view on account of a bunch of softhead screwballs who want to end it all by jumping off? I've never been in favor of padding every sharp edge in the world with foam rubber because of some negligent, suicidal, or careless buffoon.
If wackos are going to off themselves, they're going to do it. What's the point of putting a hundred million dollar barrier around the entire Golden Gate Bridge when some depressed nitwit can just go drink a gallon of antifreeze or run a garden hose from the tailpipe of their car into the passenger cabin and shut the garage door? What's next? A government-mandated barrier inside my oven so that someone can't stick their heads in (or a Thanksgiving turkey for that matter) after blowing out the pilot light?
“I find the low rail and the expansive view, along with the certain knowledge that I could throw myself off, part of the appeal of the Golden Gate Bridge.”
I hung my head over the edge of half dome in Yosemite when I was out there decades ago. Similar experience.
MythBusters pushed a test dummy off the Golden Gate, and measured the force of impact at 250 Gs. Terminal velocity was about 60mph.
I’m still surprised that anyone could survive that...
For what? Becoming a tourist or committing suicide?
The dude did the atrium thing. I figured you’d want to hum a few bars.
btt
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