

Beauty and Death: A World-Famous Icon’s Dark Side - gruseom
http://www.berfrois.com/2012/07/john-bateson-suicide-bridge/

======
gruseom
IIRC, research on suicide has found a surprising amount of randomness in it. A
fair number of people who kill themselves do so on impulse, and a fair number
of people who almost kill themselves are dissuaded by some seemingly minor
impediment. So impulse works in both directions.

Also IIRC, it's common for people who make serious suicide attempts (but
accidentally survive) to report immediately realizing that they had made a
terrible mistake and they wanted to live. The article describes one such case.
I recall reading the same thing in the literature on near-death experiences.
Assuming it's true, I wonder whether disseminating knowledge of this fact --
"the odds are high that you will regret it" -- might help dissuade some
people.

