Bullycide

[DrPhil]

An interdisciplinary/interoccupational approach to the study of suicide and self-harming behavior has been used for over 100 years to examine suicide beyond mental illness.

Some forms and incidents of suicide are a result of mental illness. Not all and I would not even say most. When we study suicide across cultures, we find that it spans beyond feeling as though one does not have proper coping skills and therefore must retreat through suicide (or other self-harming behaviors). For instance, there are cultures in which suicide is seen as heroic.

The mental health association here has community programs on bullying and suicide (unfortunately, now called "bullycide"). Bullying will never go away, it will simply receive more attention due to the Internet/facebook/twitttter/more access to dumb people. Childhood and just plain being a human has had its ups and downs since the dawn of humanity. To address the issue of suicide and self-harm, there needs to be social and psychological resources so that it is considered more than an issue of mental health. There are cons to telling people (including Suicide Attempters and Survivors of Suicide) that those who commit suicide are mentally ill as though it is so cut and dry.