Matthew Taylor

Need help? In New Zealand, you can call Lifeline on 0800 543 354 or Youthline on 0800 37 66 33.

The Bridge Documentary

“Inspired by a New Yorker story, Jumpers, written by Tad Friend, director Eric Steel decided to train cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge over the course of 2004 to capture the people who attempted to leap off the famed structure, the site of more suicides than anywhere else in the world.

He also tracked down and interviewed the friends, family members, and eyewitnesses to further recreate the events leading up to the incident and to try to explain what led these people to want to kill themselves, especially at this specific site.

The documentary’s primary subjects all struggled with mental illness, including severe depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders, and the documentary struggles to understand their illness while illuminating the anger and hurt of their loved ones.”

Eric Steel and his crew filmed the Golden Gate Bridge, which has become a suicide magnet, but has no suicide barrier, for 365 days during daylight hours. They captured 23 of the 24 suicides that took place that year (when I first watched this I didn’t realize that the 23 suicides shown weren’t reenactments).

Cue ethical dilemma of if you’re filming the bridge, and think someone who is hanging around the bridge is going to jump, should you intervene?

There’s some interesting interviews with family members, including one family who provide charming quotes like:

• “We didn’t get a mental illness.”
• “She wanted more and more support, do you think that was because of a medication change?” “No I think it was because she was ill.” “Oh ’cause she wasn’t feeling well.”
• “I’ve always thought of myself as a stronger person than her.”

If you don’t want to watch the whole documentary, consider just watching Kevin Hines’ interview. He jumped, and in what could have been the last few seconds of his life, realized that he didn’t want to die. He survived.

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^{Image credits: Chris Willis and Kevin Cole}

Need help? In New Zealand, you can call Lifeline on 0800 543 354 or Youthline on 0800 37 66 33.

Te Ururoa Flavell, Māori Party MP wrote this piece for The Rotorua Daily Post on suicide prevention.

He seems to miss the boat entirely and says:

“From what I have heard, one is almost wasting time asking why [suicide] happens.”

Instead he suggests we… shame and stigmatize the other victims of suicide—the friends and family of a person who has taken their own life.

“If a child commits suicide, let us consider not celebrating their lives on our marae; perhaps bury them at the entrance of the cemetery so their deaths will be condemned by the people.”

“In doing these things, it demonstrates the depth of disgust the people have with this.”

He says he has seen family members “in their despair, in their real grief,” but has no problem supporting the hijacking of their grief process by not allowing the usual practices to take place and stipulating where a person should be buried. Funerals and related practices aren’t just for the person who has passed away. Just because someone has taken their own life doesn’t make that life any less worth celebrating.

Progressive leader Jim Anderton’s daughter took her own life. He says that those on the verge of suicide are not acting rationally. Would place of and practices around a person’s burial really act as a preventative measure and stop them from taking their own life?

“Mr Flavell says he was just trying to get people talking, to find a solution.” Setting up families and friends for embarrassment isn’t that solution and introducing further shame around suicide isn’t the way to encourage people to talk about it—which is what really needs to happen.

^{Image credit: Nathan Hayag}

You might want to skip this post (about suicide) and read about MPs not knowing what’s going on. Need help? In New Zealand, you can call Lifeline on 0800 543 354.

This heartbreaking voicemail recording was shared with me last week. Although I have never believed in holding back secrets, I feel torn about posting this one. Like the young man who gave it to me, I’m haunted by what I could have said to my friend Dave before he took his life.

This is the last thing I heard from my girlfriend in January of 2009. It was right before she took her own life. I didn’t answer the phone because I was in class, and have regretted it ever since.

A couple of months ago PostSecret published the audio from the voicemail (transcript on hover) a girlfriend left for her boyfriend before she took her own life. Noted in the preamble it seems everyone is divided over whether publishing it was the right decision or not. Either way it was brave publishing by PostSecret.

I think being open about suicide and mental illness in general is great, but does this cross over into the realm of voyeurism? I’m leaning towards no. This illustrates the pain someone feels when they lose someone close to them to suicide. “Could I have done something?” Hopefully sharing this gave the boyfriend a little closure. I think the context is also important, it was published on a site about sharing secrets, not on a news website or social media page for shock value.

The boyfriend wanted this shared. He knew what website he was submitting it to. Was it his secret to share? I say it was his decision. Maybe the boyfriend hadn’t shared this with anyone else. Maybe, because of this, someone will try another number, instead of leaving a voicemail. Maybe this will help someone.

^{Tweets about this. Hat tip to Ally, though she disagrees with me. She is hilarious and you should follow her blog.}

^{Image credit: Pop!Tech}