I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Very interesting book, and very useful too. It came out in 2002, so I’m a bit behind the times, but gee I love the library. I should probably be doing more study-related stuff, but whatever…

The chapter called 'Suicide, Smoking and the Unsticky Cigarette' was particularly interesting. Do you Adelaideans remember the Myer Center suicides in 1996? First, there was an incident, a teenager fell off an escalator. There was confusion about whether it was an accident or suicide. And then, a few days later, there was a suicide. Both were reported widely in the media. Soon the Myer center had an epidemic of suicides. There were between 12 and 15 suicides (and one or two attempted suicides) in all, I don't remember exactly. I was working there at the time, and it was chaos. At one stage there was a suicide (or attempt) every week for two months. After a woman (who actually survived) landed one table away from some people sitting and eating on the basement level, a net went up briefly as an emergency measure and was then removed in favour of the sails. Shoulder high perspex sheets went up around the higher levels to stop people climbing over the rails. The media stopped reporting the suicides very early on, and at the time I thought that was wrong, but now I realise it was entirely the right thing to do.

In The Tipping Point, Gladwell talks about a suicide epidemic that occurred in Micronesia in the 1980’s. The pattern is much the same; one high profile suicide was widely publicised, and suddenly the act became meaningful. At the time, my friends and I talked about how public the act was, and how the very new Myer Center was shaped like a theatre (or perhaps Panopticon?). We wondered whether the people dying there felt they were expressing their pain and rejection in a very public, theatrical way. It's hard to know if that's true. Gladwell also reports that for those people considering suicide, a public example gives permission to go ahead. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that when a famous person commits suicide, or even when a suicide is reported, the rate of traffic fatalities increases.

Related but on a different note, Gladwell suggests that emulation of a codified act is at the root of smoking as well as suicide epidemics. He also wonders what would change in the way we try to combat smoking if we were approaching it the same way in which we approach suicide. Or maybe there are other ways to look at it, cos hell, whatever we are doing isnt working. People start smoking not only because of peer pressure but also, or alternatively, because it represents something. Smoking is consistently associated with sophistication. Smokers - rule-breakers and chance-takers - are cool. But smoking, and being addicted to nicotine are different things. In the same way that some people can drink without becoming alcoholics, some people can smoke without becoming addicted. The addiction is something different.

This article suggests that alcohol and cigarettes are causing suicidal tendencies. It doesn't say it outright, but the implication is pretty clear. But hang on, haven't we long known that we were self-medicating when we took those drugs? There is evidence to support that belief. The effects are still being studied, but nicotine appears to stimulate the brain into producing more dopamine and norepinephrine, neurotransmitters that when lacking, cause depression. And I think back to afternoons when my first cuppa and cigarette for the day lifted my cranky mood, was it the lack of the drugs that caused my mood, or the lack of the neurotransmitters? I said recently how I fell off the patches without any side effects. Well, that's true, apart from a restlessness during times I usually smoke (evenings on the computer) which persists, and a bit of a blue period immediately after I stopped. Interesting. I'm still looking and learning. But I'm not suicidal.

References below if you are interested.

• arumanda said on 06/09/12 at 12:36 AM.....

  rather deep for a monday evening. i like the way you think. much food for thought. thank yo ufor sharing.

• Susanne said on 06/09/13 at 08:00 PM.....

  Wow, I hadn’t heard of the Myer suicides. That’s kind of awful to do it in a shopping centre in front of people.

• anon said on 06/10/12 at 10:52 AM.....

  Crime, accidents, people dying has always been a part of the myer centre, myself, three people have attempted to kill me (all seperate incidents) in the myer centre. Completely unprovoked! Something about the myer centre makes people crazy. Nevermind it’s crime ridden and security don’t do anything!