Dear friends,
The September 2, 2013 issue of US Weekly, prominently displayed at grocery magazine stands, features a front-page story on the suicide death of Gia Allemand. You may be aware that sensationalized stories of celebrity suicide deaths are frequently followed by a spike in suicide deaths by the same method. The "Bachelor Suicide" story, which describes the cause of death and normalizes suicide as a response to difficult life events, is a classic example of this type of story.
Please join me in taking action to defend people at risk of suicide from this type of destructive media coverage. I have written letters to grocery story managers asking them to remove copies of this magazine from their shelves, and to US Weekly to ask them to revise their editorial practices. Copies of these letters are included below. You are welcome to use these or variants of them to help lobby for these changes.
Please, if at all possible, do not buy this magazine and ask others not to buy it. I would hate for US Weekly to experience a spike in sales as a consequence of publishing this story, and for them to financially benefit from media coverage that could cause a spate of tragedies. You can skim the story on page 46 to confirm the violations in ethical journalistic practice.
Lynn
Letter to Grocery Store Manager
Re: US WeeklyIssue 968, "Bachelor Suicide"
Dear Store Manager;
I am writing to ask you to immediately remove copies of US Weekly Issue 968 featuring the cover story of Gia Allemand's suicide death from your magazine stands.
You may be aware that sensationalized stories of celebrity suicide deaths are frequently followed by a spike in suicide deaths by the same method. The "Bachelor Suicide" story, which describes the cause of death and normalizes suicide as a response to difficult life events, is a classic example of the type of story that results in these deaths.
You, like many others, may be under the mistaken understanding that someone who dies by suicide has made a choice, or that if someone really wants to kill him or herself there is very little that can be done to prevent this. If this were true, we would expect that changes in journalistic practice or restrictions to the means used to cause death would have little effect on the overall number of suicide deaths. Someone who really wants to die would go to whatever lengths were necessary to gain access to lethal means or substances.
The truth is, though, that fewer than 10% of the people who survive a suicide attempt will eventually die by suicide. Over 90% will not. Research also shows that when access to common methods of suicide is restricted, the overall number of suicide deaths declines significantly and often dramatically and remains lower over decades.
For example, when the gas used in U.K. homes was changed from coal gas to less toxic natural gas in the 1960s, suicide deaths suddenly and rapidly declined by 30-40%, and have remained lower through over 40 years. After the Israeli Armed Forces changed protocols to prevent reserve soldiers from taking firearms home on the weekends, suicide deaths dropped by 40%. And after the Sri Lankan government banned a set of highly toxic pesticides commonly used in self-poisonings, suicide deaths overall dropped by 50% and have remained lower over a decade later.
If we can, therefore, increase the likelihood of someone surviving a suicide attempt or provide treatments and interventions to prevent those attempts, we are not just prolonging the inevitable -- we are saving lives.
"My brain is trying to kill me," one woman wrote in her journal a few months before her death. In the crisis of suicidal despair, that brain will use whatever information and means are readily available to try to inflict death. Stories of celebrity suicide deaths that describe the means of death and normalize suicide as a response to difficult life events, such as the one US Weekly has published about Gia Allemand, inadvertantly provide support for the suicidal urges against which someone at risk is desperately battling. These stories are typically followed by a spike in suicide deaths by the same means.
The following changes to a story such as the one published by US Weekly could save lives:
- Not reporting the means of death.
- Emphasizing the likelihood that the victim was suffering from depression or some other life-threatening mood disorder, mental illness or injury, elevating their suicide risk, and that these conditions are treatable.
- Providing crisis line contact information for readers who may be at risk.
- Providing information or links to resources on signs of depression and suicide risk.
The vast majority of people at risk of suicide experience the equivalent of a mental health heart attack, a temporary crisis of despair during which they are at high risk of acting impulsively to cause their own death. People at risk of suicide battle desperately against these urges, fighting against their own brains to try to preserve their own lives. These people deserve whatever support we can provide them.
In the interest of preventing suicide deaths among your customers and their children, please remove this magazine from your shelves. Please let your magazine distributor know what you have done and why. Please help prevent future tragedies.
Sincerely yours,
Letter to US Weekly Editor
Letters to US Weekly1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York
United States of America
10104-0298
New York, New York
United States of America
10104-0298
Re: "Bachelor Suicide", Issue 968
Dear Editor;
I was appalled to read Eric Andersson's story on Gia Allemand's suicide. You and your colleagues may be aware that stories of celebrity suicide deaths are frequently followed by a spike in suicide deaths by the same method.
You, like many others, may be under the mistaken understanding that someone who dies by suicide has made a choice, or that if someone really wants to kill him or herself there is very little that can be done to prevent this. If this were true, we would expect that changes in journalistic practice or restrictions to the means used to cause death would have little effect on the overall number of suicide deaths. Someone who really wants to die would go to whatever lengths were necessary to gain access to lethal means or substances.
The truth is, though, that fewer than 10% of the people who survive a suicide attempt will eventually die by suicide. Over 90% will not. Research also shows that when access to common methods of suicide is restricted, the overall number of suicide deaths declines significantly and often dramatically and remains lower over decades.
For example, when the gas used in U.K. homes was changed from coal gas to less toxic natural gas in the 1960s, suicide deaths suddenly and rapidly declined by 30-40%, and have remained lower through over 40 years. After the Israeli Armed Forces changed protocols to prevent reserve soldiers from taking firearms home on the weekends, suicide deaths dropped by 40%. And after the Sri Lankan government banned a set of highly toxic pesticides commonly used in self-poisonings, suicide deaths overall dropped by 50% and have remained lower over a decade later.
If we can, therefore, increase the likelihood of someone surviving a suicide attempt or provide treatments and interventions to prevent those attempts, we are not just prolonging the inevitable -- we are saving lives.
"My brain is trying to kill me," one woman wrote in her journal a few months before her death. In the crisis of suicidal despair, that brain will use whatever information and means are readily available to try to inflict death. Stories of celebrity suicide deaths that describe the means of death and normalize suicide as a response to difficult life events, such as the one you published about Gia Allemand, inadvertantly provide support for the suicidal urges against which someone at risk is desperately battling. These stories are typically followed by a spike in suicide deaths by the same means.
The following changes to a story such as the one written by Andersson could save lives:
- Do not report the means of death.
- Emphasize the likelihood that the victim was suffering from depression or some other life-threatening mood disorder, mental illness or injury, elevating their suicide risk, and that these conditions are treatable.
- Provide crisis line contact information for readers who may be at risk.
- Provide information or links to resources on signs of depression and suicide risk.
The vast majority of people at risk of suicide experience the equivalent of a mental health heart attack, a temporary crisis of despair during which they are at high risk of acting impulsively to cause their own death. People at risk of suicide battle desperately against these urges, fighting against their own brains to try to preserve their own lives. These people deserve whatever support we can provide them.
Because of the importance of this issue, several U.S. suicide prevention agencies have collaborated to publish guidelines for reporting on suicide: http://reportingonsuicide.org/Recommendations2012.pdf In the interest of preventing suicide deaths among your readers, I encourage you to incorporate these into your editorial practices.
Sincerely yours,
