Question to SS

[gggy]

why do you call it ctb and not plain suicide?

 

[WhatCouldHaveBeen32]

Idk the guys from SS took their cyanide pill like 80 years ago, don't think we can ask them anymore.

Real answer: I have no clue but I can speculate that catching the bus sounds more peaceful I guess? compared to suicide.

 

[psp3000]

I assume that some people say catch the bus or ctb instead of suicide, commit suicide, or killing yourself because

- suicide communities of the past also used this term for suicide

- the term is also used or is a visual metaphor for suicide in media for example in the comic book and film Ghost World

- I always felt a bit strange about the term commiting suicide but over time I am comfortable with it since it is a commitment (spending time doing research on methods, buying stuff, making wills and funeral plans etc.)

- killing yourself is still a bit strange to me at times because that makes it sound like commiting suicide is done against your will
idk how to explain it
or like someone or something or some outside force (figment or person other than yourself) is making you do it
or that only people not of sound mind commit suicide
or maybe people say this because they just can't believe someone would willingly commit suicide or make such a decision and follow through with it

while they can believe it for someone who is terminally ill and has decided to sign a DNR or seek out euthanasia or hospice care when that happens no one says "they killed themselves" which is interesting

hopefully this isn't a bunch of gibberish, really had to think hard about this one as I haven't thought about all the terminology in quite some time since reading Geo Stone's book specifically the part about different motives for suicide and suicidal gestures

edit: also I am curious as to how far back the term catching the bus traces back to or the first piece of media or literature that uses it as a euphemism for suicide if anyone has looked into that

 

[avoid]

I prefer 'commit suicide' and 'take your life.' These words weigh heavier than CTB and remind you that ending your life is a serious decision, not something to be taken lightly. 'Catch the bus' obscures the harsh reality of suicide. But I suppose that's why people use euphemisms: to cover up and distance yourself from uncomfortable truths. More on euphemisms.

edit: also I am curious as to how far back the term catching the bus traces back to or the first piece of media or literature that uses it as a euphemism for suicide if anyone has looked into that

Me too. Although I couldn't find much on catch the bus, it got me thinking about any predecessors of this euphemism. The concept of traveling to the beyond/unknown is quite an old euphemism for death. After some searching, I found this rather interesting website: Green's Dictionary of Slang.

This dictionary doesn't list CTB. Though I did find some euphemisms that use a form of transportation. Maybe 'catch the bus' is their modern version. The old ones use mostly water transports: ferries, boats, and ships. Maybe there's one with trains, cars or horses, but I couldn't find them. There's also 'take for a ride,' but this means to assassinate someone (among other meanings).

Spoiler: 4 euphemisms

Ride old Charon's Ferry-Boat

J. Dalton, Narrative of Street-Robberies (1728), p. 23:

They are likely to stop there, till they appear before their twelve God-fathers, and are from thence remov'd to the three legged Mare, on which they must all ride to old Charon's Ferry-Boat.​

​

Go up Green River

Schele De Vere, Americanisms (1872), p. 200:

A very odd expression, confined, however, mainly to the mountaineers in the wilder parts of the Southwest [...] they say they send a man up Green River when they have killed him. The phrase had its origin in a once famous factory on Green River, where a superior kind of large knife was made, very popular among hunters and trappers. On the blade the words 'Green River Works' were engraved, and hence the mountaineers, using the knife to despatch an adversary, literally sent his blood up Green River.​

​

Go over the Styx / river

Bolton Eve. News (4 Dec, 1906):

'When you receive this [letter] Old Charon will have carried me over the Styx'.​

​

Go West

'The Buccaneers' in Seven Seas (Sept.) in Lomax & Lomax (1934), p. 512:

Dead and bedamned and their souls gone whist, / Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!​

​

Spoiler: poem

Article:

Alfred, Lord Tennyson​

Tennyson on his deathbed requested that this poem end any collection of his work. Its four stanzas present an extended metaphor in which life is a river, flowing endlessly into the "boundless deep" of the sea, and the speaker is a sailor, stoically passing the sandbar that separates the familiarity of the harbor from the unknown realm of the open sea. In the end, the sailor expresses the hope that he will finally meet the "Pilot" that has guided him.

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

Source: https://classicalpoets.org/2016/09/10-greatest-poems-about-death-a-grim-reader

 

[Emillss]

It's probably about site hosting and making people feel more welcome, which I get. But I completely disagree with the idea that substituting words around suicide is okay, that just feels insensitive to me

 

[fedup1982]

It's a good question, but TLDR so idk I'm not in a guessing mood either, although what occurs to me is we often come up with alternative words for things like going for a shit because it's more palletible. But I'm the sort of person who just calls it as it is so I'd just tell my boss in a restaurant that I need a smelly shit quite upfront. So yeah idk but maybe that

 

[EternalShore]

Probably because the word "suicide" can make one feel uncomfy, so one wishes to avoid it~ :(

edit: also I am curious as to how far back the term catching the bus traces back to or the first piece of media or literature that uses it as a euphemism for suicide if anyone has looked into that

Me too.

Ah, a question as old as the site~ There is no concrete answer unfortunately~ :( It was definitely in use in the USEnet group, ASH (alt.suicide.holiday)~ the most productive discussion of the origin of the term "ctb" that I know of is in this thread~ :) https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/history-of-the-term-catch-the-bus.30409/#post-555167

It was only referenced in that thread, but there is also this book with "catch the bus" in the name, altho it doesn't explicitly deal with sewer slide as much as a mental breakdown, based on the description~: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1499057.I_couldn_t_catch_the_bus_today_

 

[Forever Sleep]

Initially, it was a part of trying to fit in almost. To use the site's linguistics. I tend to alternate though between using 'suicide' and CTB. I suppose it's a softer way of refering to it. I also have a liking for gallows humour I'm afraid so, I'm not so offended by it as others seem to be.

 

[FadingSnowFake]

Oh, I thought it was to not draw as much attention to the site, that the "internet police" may be alerted if the word suicide is used openly on an internet forum all the time.

 

[katara]

Hey I remember your pfp. It's good to see you are still around.

 

[gggy]

Hey I remember your pfp. It's good to see you are still around.

hey thanks for remembering me, yeah I'm still fighting, hope you're doing okay, feel free to hmu private if you wanna chat