{"id":59909,"date":"2018-06-12T10:53:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T15:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=59909"},"modified":"2018-06-24T05:48:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T10:48:53","slug":"trigger-warning-kate-spade-and-anthony-bourdain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/health\/mental-health\/trigger-warning-kate-spade-and-anthony-bourdain\/","title":{"rendered":"Trigger Warning: Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is not only about trigger warnings, it also is one: we are going to address suicide. Please stop here if you find such discussions triggering.<\/span><\/p>\n

People of my generation tend to scoff at the ubiquity of trigger warnings, content warnings and other emotional accommodations afforded in this day and age. Things like a \u201ccry closet\u201d or an \u201cemotional support peacock\u201d (both recent news items) are ripe for derision. But it may be that, even if some people take such safe spaces and trigger warnings too far, others may undervalue them. While I have seen trigger warnings in some truly bizarre places, where I hope they are unnecessary, I do believe that some trigger warnings have a real place. This is no more so than in the arena of self-harm and suicidal tendencies. This need is amplified when there is a celebrity suicide, and exponentially so when there is more than one such death.<\/span><\/p>\n

The potential glamorizing of suicide was a big topic last year with the release of the Netflix series <\/span>13 Reasons Why<\/span><\/i>, whose main character was a teenage girl who had died by suicide. (The story was told largely in flashback, which is how it was able to feature a deceased protagonist.) According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Center for Health Statistics, the American Psychological Association and others, suicide is the second-largest cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 24. Major risk factors include, but are not limited to, depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Additional factors, particularly in teens, include bullying, sexual abuse, disciplinary problems, and more. It\u2019s easy to see how a show like <\/span>13 Reasons Why<\/span><\/i> making its main character forever young, beautiful and tragic can be a dangerous trigger for some people. Does this not deserve an alert for people at risk, or their families? (Season two, recently released, does begin with such warnings.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The same problem exists with celebrity suicides, of which there were two in the news this past week, designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. Such events contain the potential for a \u201csuicide contagion.\u201d What this means is that those who are already at risk for suicide are more likely to act on that impulse when they hear about others taking their own lives. This is especially true if the deceased was popular or admired, as celebrities tend to be. <\/span><\/p>\n

The reason for this phenomenon is not completely understood. In theory, celebrity suicides are particularly contagious because the celebrity is seen as a role model and it is easier for a person at risk to copy their behavior. Another reason, according to John Ackerman of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is that when \u201chigh-profile people, who are successful and who the world views as having a lot going for them, \u2026 die by suicide, it can generate feelings of hopelessness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The uptick in suicides following such celebrity deaths is well-documented. Recorded instances date back at least as far as \u201cthe Werther effect\u201d in 1774, when people copied the death of the protagonist in Johann Goethe\u2019s book, <\/span>The Sorrows of Young Werther<\/span><\/i>. It continues to the modern day. For example, following the 1962 death of Marilyn Monroe (ruled a \u201cprobable suicide\u201d), the suicide rate rose 12%.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suicide contagion is also a worldwide phenomenon. In Japan, it’s called “Yukiko Syndrome,” after pop singer Yukiko Okada, who died by suicide in 1986, leading to a large number of copycat deaths. A 2004 study in Hong Kong showed that those who were affected by a celebrity suicide were almost six times more likely to have a severe level of suicidal ideation (the forming of suicidal thoughts).<\/span><\/p>\n

More recent research indicates that victims also tend to copy the celebrities\u2019 causes of death. For example, following Robin Williams\u2019 death in 2014, the suicide rate rose 10%. But there was not only an increase in suicides following Williams\u2019 death, there was a particular increase in the manner of his death (which I choose not to share here for reasons that will soon be made apparent).<\/span><\/p>\n

Spade and Bourdain might not have been the mega-stars that Monroe or Williams were but the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline saw an increase of 25% percent in suicide-related calls in the two days after Bourdain’s death. The Suicide Awareness Voices of Education also saw an increase of 25-30% in those seeking help.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve determined that this is a real phenomenon, what can we do about it? There are certain steps that responsible journalists should take when reporting on such stories. Thanks to social media, all of us are micro-journalists and we should likewise proceed responsibly when discussing this kind of incident on our various timelines and newsfeeds. Among the things we can do are:<\/span><\/p>\n