Navigating 2024

A resolution for compassionate reporting on mental health

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2024 (he says in that weird way flight attendants do when you reach your destination, as if they’ve somehow gotten there before you…).

This is the time of year we usually make resolutions to try harder, to be better. They include things like stopping smoking, slowing down on your drinking, exercising more, or being kinder – some of which are easier to stick to than others. When it comes to the media (and, I suppose, people in general), the resolution I’d most like to see adopted is to change the way we report on, and speak about, mental health and suicide. I know it is not the most cheerful subject for the first column of the new year, but I believe it is a topic that needs a lot more understanding by a much larger portion of society.

Whenever suicide is reported on, whether in the news or in police reports some organisations seem to just ‘copy/ paste’ from, there is always one solitary incident listed as the ‘cause’ of a suicide. I’ve seen reports saying the person killed themselves: “after having a fight with their girlfriend/ boyfriend”; “after their father shouted at them for breaking their cellphone”; “when they got into trouble for not having washed the dishes”; or, one of the worst cases of this which was carried on the front page of more than one of our local newspapers, “because of the shame they felt when they were caught looking at pornography” – which is just plain shoddy reporting that perpetuates whatever implied or imposed shame there may have been, especially seeing as the name of the young person was included in the article.

In certain cases, sure, suicide can be the consequence of a single event or action, but generally it is the culmination of a long struggle and much anguish, and (disagree with me all you want) contrary to what many may say on social media, it is not a thoughtless act! As someone who has suffered perhaps ‘more than my fair share’ of suicidal ideation I can tell you that is not a decision that most people who resort to will have made without lots of lots of thought. In the words of David Foster Wallace (yes, I do quote him a lot):

“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”

Being in the media industry myself, I understand that when reporting on a suicide there isn’t always the time, resources, or (let’s face it) training and understanding, to go into the background and nuance of a suicide case. But, if we can’t spend the time to humanize the subject of the story rather than just quoting the police report, should we be reporting on it at all? Especially if we take into account the results of various studies that show reporting on suicide can actually lead to an increase in people committing the act!

Perhaps less a resolution then, but rather my hope for 2024 is that we all take a little more time to think about the humanity of the subject of our stories, both in the media and on our own social media timelines, Whatsapp messages, and conversations. That instead of judging we try to understand, and that if the flames start drawing nearer, in your own life, or others’, that they can be extinguished. Above all else that 2024 is a great year for you and those you love, and that… Until next month (and all the ones after that), you enjoy your journey.

David Bishop

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out to Lifeline at 116 or Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Support Namibia at +265 81 389 8891.