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Mrs. Peel

Detecting the language of suicide: There's an app for that

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Sorry to be positing on such a sad topic...however, I found this article to be worthy of sharing for 2 reasons:

 

1) As we know, the topic does have a connection to guns.... those roughly 30K poor souls that kill themselves with guns each year in the U.S. (including those very rare cases that occur at gun ranges, like the ones that have been discussed on these forums). Then there's the way those gun suicides are often lumped together with gun murders - an unfair manipulation, I would argue, by the gun control movement to pad/exaggerate gun violence to inflame emotions.

 

2) But more importantly, just from a standpoint of basic human decency, I find it exciting that a researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital has apparently discovered an effective way to predict which teens are actually feeling suicidal - as opposed to those who may be experiencing a non-suicidal mental illness. In fact, this is the most promising research into this topic that I've read in a very, very long time.

 

One can only hope that the methodology could also be tweaked to work in more situations, and perhaps to work with adults too. Hey, who knows?... Looking into the future, as the technology advances, could this even be adapted as a suicide screening tool used at public ranges? 

 

It certainly sounds like it has the potential to translate into lives saved... so at least I'm leaving you with a note of hope on an otherwise grim topic!

 

It's a very good read for anyone interested in human psychology. Here's the initial link (which links to other articles as well):

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/11/19/detecting-language-suicide-theres-app/93944060/

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.... those roughly 30K poor souls that kill themselves with guns each year in the U.S....

 

In 2013 the total people killed by guns was about 33,636 and that there were around 21,175 suicides

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

 

Unfortunately anti-freedom people will find a way to use this against people that would never commit suicide (or any violence).

 

For example if a doctor thinks you might sound like you are having suicidal thoughts they could report you to the government which would then put you on a "suicide watch list"  and we all know how that would be used. Things like this sound appealing but the unintended consequences can be dangerous. And we have heard the refrain "if it only saves a single life it would be worth it".

 

btw: I am not saying anyone in this thread is saying this but just wanted to present another side to the conversation.

 

Today the political climate is so toxic I would be very concerned about anything like this. This is somewhat analogous to the issue of "smart guns". 

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For example if a doctor thinks you might sound like you are having suicidal thoughts they could report you to the government which would then put you on a "suicide watch list"  and we all know how that would be used. Things like this sound appealing but the unintended consequences can be dangerous. And we have heard the refrain "if it only saves a single life it would be worth it".

 

 

The question "Have you ever had thoughts of suicide" or "Have you ever thought about harming yourself" are gotcha questions.  Always answer NO.  A Yes answer can have lifetime consequences.

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I would tend to say you're all paranoid (LOL)... but you've raised interesting points I hadn't initially considered. Yeah, I guess any new technology or insights like this can be wielded for good or for bad. Fingers crossed this is used appropriately - to save lives, not to trample on people's freedom.

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