Doing suicidal on the internet: a discursive analysis of online suicide forums

Abstract

Despite 50 years of suicide research we are no closer to being able to, with confidence, predict who is a suicide ideator, who will move from ideation toward attempt, and who will actually attempt. Respect for those with lived experiences means finding ways to use these experiences to inform best practice in suicide prevention. This research does this. It uses the actual words of those with lived experiences, these peer-to-peer experiences, to explore how being suicidal is understood on online forums. It captures how on-line peers respond to the vulnerability of life and how online peers appear to be able to identify those in suicidal crisis. This study uses actual online posts as data and moves suicide research away from the researcher as expert to those with lived experience as expert. It privileges these experiences. This is the first Australian study that focuses on how being suicidal gets discursively accomplished in real-life in real time. It moves those experiencing suicidal ideation from being numbers to being real people with real voices. How responders who are experiencing, or have experienced, suicidal thoughts and behaviours, relate to their peers may help health professional acquire better ways of identifying, supporting, and working with those who are suicidal. The data are the actual experiences of those with lived experiences. It is their words, unedited. The study is the lived experience of being suicidal