Portrayal of suicide on tv/films is done irresponsibly

[Iwantoutrightnow]

I find it frustrating the way that suicide is (as far as I've seen) portrayed on t.v and in films. They usually go with an overdose and they make it look easy, painless and peaceful. I think this is irresponsible for 2 reasons.

1. To the desperate/impulsive it sets them up to fail. It gives people who desperately want an end to their pain the impression that that is easily attainable when really this method is highly unreliable.
2. It serves to stigmatize suicide because it shows suicide as being an easy option, pop a few too many pills and you're gone with no thought for the poor people who are left behind.

If suicide was portrayed more realistically does anyone think it would help to reduce the stigma and/or reduce the amount of failed attempts?

 

[Lost in a Dream]

This may be the case for some movies and tv shows, but when I first discovered the method I want to use (decapitation with a rope and a car), I found it while watching a show called Castle Rock. I researched the method afterwards of course, to find out how effective it is and how to do it properly, but the way that it was portrayed seemed to be pretty accurate, it's just a matter of finding the best location and the right type and length of rope to be able to pull it off in real life.

For the record, the specific scene I am referring to is this:



I don't really think that portraying suicide more realistically is going to decrease the number of failed attempts because the main reason that people fail at it is a lack of research. It really is no secret that most things are portrayed unrealistically on tv, so any time someone wants to repeat something they see in some movie or on a show, they should research it first to make sure it can even be done and how to do it correctly, if so. I think that even if suicide was portrayed realistically on tv and in movies, people might still mess up their methods and fail at them if they don't research the method that is shown, to make sure they are doing it correctly.

As for the stigma, I don't know if it would affect it one way or the other, since the forced lifers are responsible for that. That is a problem that doesn't seem to have a good solution.

 

[FireFox]

Yes
1) Sucide is very very painful and not instant like in the films. More people fail at sucide and suffer damage to the body
- The rope takes 10- 20 minutes to die. Death is painiful as suffocate with that thing wrapped around your neck
- overdose if you get the amount wrong or the wrong ingridents you will give yourself permanet organ failure.
-train. If fuck up the timing in terms of jumping you will lose a limb and not die.
The mind wants you to die but the body will not allow you to do and naturally the body will fight. I wanted to drown myself in a deep pond in my local park but my body kept refusing me to go furthur in the lake. I want to overdose on the medication in my kitchen but by body was pushing me back from the cupboard
2) sucide in films/tv also show the families and communties being upset and all of sudden everyone cares. This is irresponsible.
Look at 13 reasons why . A girl commits sucide due to bullying and leaves 13 tapes behind addressed to the people who cauaed her sucide.
There lots of sucidial people who dont have caring families and bullies dont care if you kill yourself. Bullies have no souls.

 

[Iwantoutrightnow]

I understand the need to research bu I remember my first attempt when I was young and feeling desperate. It never occurred to me to research a method, I had seen on t.v someone od'd on paracetamol went to bed and died in their sleep. They achieved the peace I craved so much and it was within my reach. I took over 100 pills with alcohol. I was found about 6 hours after I'd done it and was given the anti-dote. I was lucky to not have had organ damage but the vomiting was awful and so was the reaction from family and the doctors and nurses.

I know better now, but those images of people slipping away peacefully are still powerful. I want that but I know I can't get it

 

[FireFox]

I understand the need to research bu I remember my first attempt when I was young and feeling desperate. It never occurred to me to research a method, I had seen on t.v someone od'd on paracetamol went to bed and died in their sleep. They achieved the peace I craved so much and it was within my reach. I took over 100 pills with alcohol. I was found about 6 hours after I'd done it and was given the anti-dote. I was lucky to not have had organ damage but the vomiting was awful and so was the reaction from family and the doctors and nurses.

I know better now, but those images of people slipping away peacefully are still powerful. I want that but I know I can't get it

I live in the UK.

Oh paracetomol that is painful. Only rescently I read the paper in the packet it says can cause liver damage if overdosed. It says you must seek help within 2 hours.

Reading the packet paper made me decide not to OD on paracetmol.

They should put warning signs in over counter mecidine outside the packet like they do with ciagerettes.

 

[Iwantoutrightnow]

Paracetamol od is very painful. I think 8 hours is the maximum before organ damage is pretty much guaranteed without the antidote. Even without the antidote a fatal od can take months to kill you, they never tell you that on screen

 

[Notabadguy]

It could reduce the number of failed attempts.

 

[Aap]

I think if you were objective, you will find many, many things that are not portrayed realistically in movies. You want to legislate how suicide is performed in movies? Fine, go ahead and ban anything fantasy, sci fi, romantic, deaths in general, especially gsw or knife related, most horror, etc. Of course, you may have just been referring to things you yourself don't personally like.

 

[Iwantoutrightnow]

I know a lot of things aren't realistic on screen, if they were they'd often be less interesting and not as good for ratings.

It just feels like more often than not suicide on screen fuels the stigma and gives the desperate a false sense of hope. I guess I'm just struggling with that false sense of hope that I still hold as contemplate ctb. I'm sorry for sounding naive and wanting the screen to represent reality but it would be good if occasionally suicide could be portrayed as the real struggle that it is so that people like me don't feel quite so bad about what they want to do and less pathetic for failing.

 

[Aap]

I'm sorry you are struggling. Don't let movies influence your sense of reality, as they very seldom reflect it, in the same way a Barbie doll or A cartoon doesn't reflect It.