Let's die together
Japanese suicide sites don't make cheerful reading. I'm reading one, which separates the message boards into white and black, white for writing about fun and happy things, and black, I assume, for writing about sad, sad, depressing things. I'm reading the white one now, and I'm not sure I even want to glance at the black one.
I'm reading a thread posted by a young woman, married and pregnant with her first child, due in August. They're hoping for a boy. And I thought it was so sweet when she started, writing how it's been a while, having first come to the boards about two months back. Someone who I suppose is one of the regulars remembered her and messaged with her back and forth, about the baby, the husbands job. Light things, like is she excited about the baby and is the husband doing well. He seemed quite good at it, building trust. He has a very thick Kansai accent. And suddenly she comes out with what I assume she's wanted to say from the start. That she doesn't trust anybody lately, that she hates herself for always wondering what people really think, that even with the baby on the way she suddenly wants to die, to disappear. And I sat here smiling as I was reading their discussion, and then I wasn't smiling anymore. But they actually talked about it, and everything seemed to get back to normal.
I do think that in the Western media some of these sites are unnecessarily demonized. I mean yeah, I don't really think a site with skulls and blood and messages that say "I've got pills, wanna die with me?" are helping anybody. But the few that I've looked at now are more concerned with drawing people out and getting them to talk about what's bothering them. And the Japanese don't talk about that stuff all that much. So I think it's kind of awesome that there are people out there doing all they can to maintain a dialogue with people contemplating suicide. It's free and anonymous therapy for people who wouldn't seek therapy otherwise, or talk to anyone. So, yay, I guess.
In a completely unrelated note: Why do so many people put a picture of themselves on dating ads that's cropped out of a group picture? To show they have friends and aren't creepy weirdos who never leave home? To show they're not vain enough to pose for a vanity picture?
I'm reading a thread posted by a young woman, married and pregnant with her first child, due in August. They're hoping for a boy. And I thought it was so sweet when she started, writing how it's been a while, having first come to the boards about two months back. Someone who I suppose is one of the regulars remembered her and messaged with her back and forth, about the baby, the husbands job. Light things, like is she excited about the baby and is the husband doing well. He seemed quite good at it, building trust. He has a very thick Kansai accent. And suddenly she comes out with what I assume she's wanted to say from the start. That she doesn't trust anybody lately, that she hates herself for always wondering what people really think, that even with the baby on the way she suddenly wants to die, to disappear. And I sat here smiling as I was reading their discussion, and then I wasn't smiling anymore. But they actually talked about it, and everything seemed to get back to normal.
I do think that in the Western media some of these sites are unnecessarily demonized. I mean yeah, I don't really think a site with skulls and blood and messages that say "I've got pills, wanna die with me?" are helping anybody. But the few that I've looked at now are more concerned with drawing people out and getting them to talk about what's bothering them. And the Japanese don't talk about that stuff all that much. So I think it's kind of awesome that there are people out there doing all they can to maintain a dialogue with people contemplating suicide. It's free and anonymous therapy for people who wouldn't seek therapy otherwise, or talk to anyone. So, yay, I guess.
In a completely unrelated note: Why do so many people put a picture of themselves on dating ads that's cropped out of a group picture? To show they have friends and aren't creepy weirdos who never leave home? To show they're not vain enough to pose for a vanity picture?