The Urge to End It All: Where are They Now?

This article is by far one of the most useful ways to understand suicide in a rational sense, and the following posts are concerning topics discussed in the article. I strongly recommend reading the full article. (Original Article by Scott Anderson)

In the case of the Ellington and Taft bridges, the bridge and general suicide rates dropped when a barrier was installed to prevent jumpers. Now, where are these type of people now? Is it possible that coming close to suicide "scared them straight"?


Well Richard Seiden tried to figure out (original study here).

His study called "Where are They Now?" looked for precisely that. He researched about 515 people who have been pulled from the Golden Gate Bridge's edge, from the day it opened to see how many of them actually ended up finding another way.

Of the 515 people, only 6 percent of the people ended up committing suicide. That means that 94 percent of people were actually saved from the death they almost inflicted on themselves.

"They were having an acute temporary crisis, they passed through it and, coming out the other side, they got on with their lives."