Is Suicide Painless? Not Necessarily, Warns San Diego County Health Department

While we understand the author of this article often writes in a satirical nature, this piece is highly insensitive and potentially dangerous. Tragically, every minute of every day, someone attempts to take their own life and every 15 minutes someone dies by suicide. From 1998 to 2009, suicide took the lives of 3,991 San Diegans. Despite these alarming statistics, suicide continues to be stigmatized and media portrayals that make light of suicide contribute to that stigma and misinformation. To learn how media coverage of suicide can influence behavior negatively by contributing to contagion or positively by encouraging help-seeking, please visit www.afsp.org/media. We urge The Reader to release a sincere apology to its readers and remove this article from its website to reduce further risk and harm. We also encourage The Reader to join us on October 15th at the 2011 San Diego County Out of the Darkness Community Walk (www.outofthedarkness.org) to understand the enormous toll suicide has on surviving families, friends, classmates, co-workers and communities. As a community, we must work together to learn more about suicide and ways to prevent it. TOGETHER we can save lives. Thank you, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention - San Diego Chapter www.afsp.org/sandiego
— September 16, 2011 11:34 a.m.