[/floatr]Asahi: Activists hope to counter suicides by creating a fad for livingGoogle jisatsu saito (suicide Web sites) in Japanese, and you'll find dozens of related forums and chat rooms..."While there is much guidance available on how to kill yourself, you can rarely find advice on surviving life's ordeals," says Ryuichi Okita, 31, CEO of Posi-media, a new company founded to tackle the issue. "We hope to demonstrate survival methods and drastically curb the number of suicides"..."People who commit suicide are mostly intelligent, perfectionist and decisive," Okita says. "If they had more than 30 possible solutions for bullying or paying back debts other than committing suicide, they wouldn't choose to die," he says. Okita continues that most suicides are based on the incorrect perception that no alternative solutions exist. "We must provide potential victims 'an oasis in the desert'--a place they can access from anywhere," he says. The company is now actively soliciting survival tips from people who have been to the brink and fought off the impulse to end their lives...These experiences are available in Japanese at ikiteku.net. Okita says the survival techniques generally fall into these categories: a spiritual cure from a piece of literature or a person; engaging in a physical or academic pursuit; changing circumstances--a job or residence; waiting for time to pass or learning about legal protections available to those in debt...more...
See related FG Thread: Suicide Prevention T-Shirts
