
At Japan’s cliffs, he's walked more than 600 people back from the edge (2018) - joshfraser
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-suicide-20180222-story.html
======
graeme
For anyone who's played Zelda, Breath of the Wild, there is a character who
patrols a bridge to keep it safe from monster. If you jump on the edge of the
bridge, he will talk you down and then offer to continue conversation.

I thought I read it was based on a japanese person, but it may have been based
on an american cop who patrolled a bridge in san francisco.

Either way, it reminded me of this story. At the point at which you find this
bridge character you are likely feeling quite down about the game world, and
isolated. So it's a more poignant scene than I can describe in text.

[https://checkpointorg.com/zelda-mental-
health/](https://checkpointorg.com/zelda-mental-health/)

~~~
jjakque
There's also a similar story at cliff 'The Gap' in Sydney. The person known as
'Angel of the Gap' who lived near by often patrol around the area and talk
people out of potential suicide [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gap_(Sydney)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gap_\(Sydney\))

~~~
graeme
This is wonderful. I posted the zelda link thinking "surely they modelled it
after the man in this hacker news story"

But as it happens there are several such examples worldwide to serve as a
potential model. A nice glimmer of hope and compassion.

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zapzupnz
Just an interesting aside: whenever I see Japanese articles translated, the
reported speech ascribed to older Japanese interviewees often includes such
language as "I'm like, 'Hey, how are you doing?'".

I wonder if that's an indicator of the translator's age. The Japanese person
in question is 73, and I wouldn't expect the average 73 year old English
speaker to use that sort of language. 'Like' as a substitute for 'say' seems
to be more recent, generationally-speaking.

I would be curious to know what the person would have said in Japanese.

~~~
asutekku
The thing with japanese is that such translation is absolutely plausible in
english. The language has nuances which are almost impossible to translate
into concise english. Thus some completely mundane phrases (in japanese) might
sound funny or weird in English so the closest english equivalent is used.

Anyhow in this context i’m quite sure it’s more descriptive of the author’s
usage of english than anything.

~~~
zapzupnz
Oh, I understand that it's plausible. It just seems idiomatic to the author or
translator, that's all. Nothing wrong with that, no judgement here. :-)

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cabaalis
Self worth is so fragile. I remember vividly being called a loser just one
time in middle school. It has occurred to me at various times in life, even
though I know the person who said it doesn't remember it, and they were also
WRONG. Still, it gets me down.

I've not been seriously suicidal in life, but it occurs to me that thoughts of
suicide maybe is not as difficult to reach as first appears.

~~~
paulkon
I've had to adopt the "couldn't care less" approach when someone directs what
I feel to be an unsubstantiated claim in my direction.

Of course when the moment has passed, I'll mull over it if the person is
usually friendly and then work through the claim like a detached third party
to figure out how I should really feel/think about or act on what they said.

It's the only approach that has successfully worked to keep my feelings from
obliterating my psyche for the rest of the day/week if a confrontation like
that does happen.

I keep them insulated and examine them later.

~~~
atom-morgan
Another way of looking at it is the "do I respect this person" approach". More
often than not, someone just calling you a loser probably isn't someone you
look up to. They're a hater and weirdly enough, we often let their opinions
influence us more than people we cherish.

------
intruder
I live in front of a bridge in Japan and every other weekend late at night I
hear/see firetrucks and ambulances rushing to the river side.

I've never seen anyone jump but I know it's happening. Sometimes there are
flowers near where the person jumped.

Whenever I cross the bridge and see someone standing by the edge I always
wonder if they're there for that... I've never talked to anyone. I should.

~~~
jesterson
Yes, you should if you have a chance, just like I should do the same.

Especially in Japan where people live secluded life and even a short
encouraging conversation can change someone's life

------
aecorredor
Documentary on YouTube featuring Yukio Shige:
[https://youtu.be/Nj1QHZTokWE](https://youtu.be/Nj1QHZTokWE)

------
kyleblarson
Great article about a great human. I just wish they hadn't mentioned that
piece of garbage youtube person as any press is good press for people like
him.

~~~
lettergram
YouTubes algorithm also put it as trending for quite a while. Having seen it
the dude was literally out there to find a body and then played up how “crazy”
it was. No empathy at all, very much a psychopath

------
wespiser_2018
I used to think "people would just go somewhere else". This is wrong. In my
mind, there is a demand, and the user would just find a new supply. With
suicide from bridge jumps, this is not the case, and there is quite a bit of
evidence that suggests intervention in these acute situations can save peoples
lives, and they will go on to live 90% of the time.
[http://seattlefriends.org/files/seiden_study.pdf](http://seattlefriends.org/files/seiden_study.pdf)

------
yingw787
God bless Yukio Shige.

It's pretty impossible to describe what depression is like. You just have to
experience it for yourself. One book I read by Gary Paulsen (I think maybe
"The Raft"?) when I was younger described "true hunger" as "not 'oh I missed a
meal', or 'I will go hungry today', but 'I believe in my bones there will
never be any food on this earth ever again'". That's kind of what depression
is: a "true hunger" of some sort.

~~~
craigzucchini
My first thought in response to you was "ah comeon it's not that bad". But
then I thought back to when I was fired from my dumb corporate stooge job that
burned me out. I literally had an existential crisis during the interview
gauntlet where I couldn't see a place for myself in tech anymore. So actually
I think you've pegged the feeling quite well. Though I wasn't remotely
suicidal, the hopelessness of the job hunt amd my diminished interest in my
field of expertise took a massive financial and emotional tole.

~~~
nashashmi
I think the ingredient missing from your anecdote is pressure.

Idea of suicide comes when there is pressure to deliver. Like someone yelling
at you to get a job. Or constantly calling you worthless because of some
personality trait. Or when there is a scenario where if not something gets
accomplished then disaster will follow.

~~~
sysbin
Not necessarily the case. I'm a visibly transgender woman because of puberty
and religious abuse when young preventing access to hormone blockers. I would
say what encompasses me is to blame for suicidal ideation. The behaviour of
people I have no control over and how they constantly invalidate me; possibly
threaten or harm me. Furthermore, the cost of actually fixing what makes me
visibly transgender is like putting a downpayment on a house and people refuse
to consider it medical treatment. Reality can just hate a person and that's
really what's to blame. I likely wouldn't be talked away from the cliff.

~~~
jstarfish
> Reality can just hate a person and that's really what's to blame.

No, that's externalizing. Reality doesn't hate you.

The nature of any dysphoria leads one to deny reality as it is though, and
presume a lot about it that is objectively false-- your brain lies to you
about the way you understand reality and convinces you that in order to
correct it you so can understand it, you need to seek solutions that are
unaffordable, harmful or otherwise impossible/out-of-reach.

Because humanity is generally retarded we celebrate or demonize things we
don't understand instead of actually working to understand them. What gets
lost in the zeitgeist of promoting "LGBTx uber alles" and tarring the skeptics
as *phobes is that expensive surgery, a lifetime of HRT and a premature cancer
death--getting everything you think you need to feel whole--won't necessarily
steer you away from suicide either, because the fundamental problem has more
to do with what's between your ears than what's between your legs. Post-ops
are still something like 20x more likely to commit suicide than the general
population; hardly counts as a success story when it comes to harm reduction
or enacting effective medical prognoses.

I hope you find happiness through GRS or otherwise. I also hope it comes
sooner rather than later so you don't suffer any longer than you have. But if
you ever do find yourself on the edge of that cliff, at least consider for a
second that you're so dissatisfied because you've been trying to address the
wrong problem this whole time.

~~~
sysbin
What a load of rubbish by someone that apparently is not able to understand
what encompasses an object is the real source for where blame is fitting.

Reality can make one human suffer compared to another that doesn't suffer
because of displacement rooted in nature and where the result was not equal
experiences; when it came to evolution. Nobody has any control in their life
at the fundamental level and because we're all just input/output by the forces
exerted upon us.

I've been damaged by a reality that was shit for transgender kids when I was
young and now reality has been changing for future kids that are lgbtq. You're
labouring under delusions with the nonsense you wrote.

------
iratei
Timely article considering the suicide of popular Youtuber Etika. He jumped
off a bridge in NYC almost a week ago i think.

#OpStopSuicide

~~~
progman32
A similar fate claimed a YouTube maker and old timer, aussie50. Rest his soul
if such a thing exists.

The scary thing about some suicides is how "sudden" and "unexpected" they can
be. I use scare quotes because I strongly believe the signs are there in
advance... We owe it to our fellow humans to figure out how to detect them and
provide compassionate support. It's not easy. At all.

Maybe even scarier is that in many cases of depression, basic cognition breaks
down in the sufferer. Like trying to run a program with a faulty CPU. That's
why a support network is so important. Sometimes you just have to offload the
processing to someone else...

~~~
iratei
So very true.... Even when I think of LiLPeeP and his flagrant disregard for
his own wellbeing, popping huge amounts of prescription pills and sharing vids
of the same on his IG... to millions of adoring fans. No one took it seriously
until he died.

Social Media is so invasive, mind-warping and a harmful drug in it's own
right.

Thank you for your comment, will have to check out aussie50's story.

