MAN COMMITS SUICIDE ON CHATROOM WEBCAM!

[almaty 19]

Anybody that pulls a stunt like that is just an attention #######.

he is dead.....have a little empathy

[bostonparis 0]

As a therapist-to-be I feel I must chime in with what I've learned in school, for what it's worth. And that is: suicide is the ultimate selfish act and a good therapist will try to help their patient see why that is and how their death would affect those around them, thus bringing them back to the now and hopefully getting them to realise why they should live (family, friends, etc.) It's not a cruel technique at all and it's not judging. I know the word "selfish" seems harsh, but when you examine it, how is suicide not selfish? You are giving up on your life when you must know it will hurt so many others. GRANTED, some people do not have the capacity to know it will hurt others, and that's where the word selfish does not apply.

Since this man had possible brain damage from a car accident, his behaviour may have completely changed, as can often happen when people are in car crashes. It's really sad to see.

I'm not saying suicide is not a selfish act. But to tell someone who is so despondent that they see NO other way out of despair but to END their life that they're being selfish is NOT going to make them feel BETTER. It will just make them feel more guilty when they do end their life.

[meauxna 15]

Anybody that pulls a stunt like that is just an attention #######.

Hi! And who were you before this nickname?

You can PM the answer to me if you'd rather.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

more to the story

A father-of-two hanged himself live over the internet in Britain's first 'cyber suicide'.

Kevin Whitrick, 42, took his life after being goaded by dozens of chatroom users from across the world who initially believed he was play acting.

But as they watched in horror, Mr Whitrick climbed onto a chair, smashed through a ceiling and then hanged himself with a piece of rope.

Kevin Neil Whitrick, 42, was found dead by police in Wellington, after being alerted by a web user who is thought to have watched in horror as the man harmed himself

Stunned by what they had witnessed - broadcast on a popular chatroom website used by millions of people across the globe - chatroom users immediately contacted the police.

Officers rushed to the electrician's home in the Wellington area of Shropshire within minutes, smashing down the door to try to save him.

But despite their efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Last night it emerged that Mr Whitrick had been suffering from depression after being badly injured in a car crash last year.

Friends said that the breakdown of his marriage with wife, Paula - with whom he had 12-year-old twins - and the recent death of his father had also been causing him some distress.

Mr Whitrick told users of web-chat site PalTalk what he was going to do two hours before he killed himself on Wednesday night.

He was logged on with around 50 other users to a special "insult" chatroom where people "have a go at each other".

Today distraught users of the site said that they felt sick and had previously thought the web broadcast was a hoax.

They confirmed Mr Whitrick told friends in the internet chat room of his plans to kill himself but, thinking he was joking, they egged him on telling him to make sure the his webcam was on.

Mr Whitrick, using the user-name Shyboy-17-1, switched on his webcam and went ahead with his grisly plan.

One anonymous user said: "He tied a rope around an uncovered ceiling joist and stood on the chair as he tied the rope around his neck.

"Some of us chatroom users, talking to Kevin over text chat, microphones and video tried to convince him to step down, but others egged him on telling him to get on with it.

"We just couldn't believe he was doing it - it was surreal.

"One chatter said: 'F***ing do it, get on with it, get it round your neck. For F***'s sake he can't even do this properly'."

Another user who did not wish to be named said: "When Kevin stepped off the chair and was left dangling, the mood in the chatroom changed and people began to realise what they had just seen.

"We started asking if anyone knew where he lived and saying they should contact the police.

"I think someone contacted the police in their local area but sadly no one could get to him in time."

Shortly after, moderators on the site closed the feed from Kevin's webcam.

'Considerate and kind'

Mr Whitrick had been living in his flat, a converted house, after splitting from his wife Paula two years ago.

The couple, who married in 1988, had 12-year-old twins Lewis and Melissa who live with their mother in a three-bedroom, semi-detached home close by.

They are said to have visited their dad, who worked at family firm RMW electrical services in Shrewsbury, at weekends. His older brother Malcolm Whitrick is an associate director at Shrewsbury Town Football Club.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article...bcam/article.do

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Found a screen shot of the hanging on another message board I'm on. Rough.

[JayJay 4]

Wow...that's really close to where I once lived for about 11 yrs in Britain!

That's terribly sad. Amazing how it illustrates the opposite "force of the internet" - the "dark side" of the force that brought many of the couples on here together....

All together, it's awful, isn't it? Suicide is selfish, yes, but having said that, a therapist won't simply say "don't you think you're being selfish?" to a patient as that's pretty much the worst thing you can SAY to a patient - it'll amke them feel more like topping tehmselves most of the time. So yes, it's ture, it's selfish, but during therapy that has to be approached from a different angle with the patient, then eventually tackled in a manner that provides an uplift at the end, so that the patient feels able to walk up hill from where they're at.

People really don't often know what they're doing when they do things like this. Sometimes pain is simply too much to bear, and it doesn't matter any more - especially when they've witnessed relatives and loved ones greiving over someone else and then getting on with their lives. the suicidal person mgiht think "they will be okay - life goes on and they survived the death of Mom/Dad/Brother etc, so they will feel better eventually with me also after I am gone."

Suicidal people are often very generous people and though they may be depressed, they may also feel as though they are dying each day and are making others terribly sad. So if you think of it from that point of view, you can see why many might not think of the act as selfish - or indeed, be in so much pain that they simply don't think of anything but crying out like babies for their Mommies at the moment of birth as they go ahead and end it all. It's a terribly lonely way to feel.

This man was very likely seeking affirmation on the website to enable him to actually do the deed. If you think about it, it's a tremendously scary thing to do, committing suicide - it takes guts, no matter which way you look at it, and many people find they need that extra "shove" - an affirmation that they are indeed completely washed up. That's why you might find someone suicidal saying "I am a piece of cr@p...I am worthless..." enough times to make someone else say "Yeah alright, whatever, you ARE - now get lost.". So if you're the suicidal person, a insult webroom would be the ultimate place to get that "shove". Makes sense, no?

Also, if you're suffering from PTSD for example, you may be completely convinced that the rest of humankind is utterly demonic and nobody gives a toss about ANYONE else. Without treatment for that kind of thing, you're essentially doomed - you're either going to be suicidal or homicidal eventually! (Okay so that might be a big generalization, but many serious cases of PTSD have lead to some bizarre and violent action).

Or then you have depression, where you're so utterly alone, it's not even funny - think about being so tired, so mentally drained every single day that you don't even want to get out of bed. nothing seems worth it anymore - not even eating. You cry and cry, and look in the mirror and wonder why your face is such a stupid shape and why you look so much like your idiot father/mother. You review and memorise every insult ever thrown at you and every bad act you ever committed; and use the memories to telll yourself what you percieve you are every day in bed, when it's dark and your thoughts overwhelm you and your body feels alien to you. All of humanity is on another planet and none of them have a clue how you feel - and it wouldn't matter if they did either, because none of them care, and you don't trust a single one of the lying mo'fos. It would be much easier to go to sleep and never wake up than spend another day like this...

To help someone who is suicidal, you have to be able to enter that dark world with them - and it is a very dark world indeed. You have to be able to go in there and get them out of the quicksand without becoming bogged down or freaked out - that's when you are useless. It's also utterly useless to stand on the sidelines shouting "Oy, you - selfish one - get out of that quicksand!". That's why suicide is so scary - you have to get down and dirty to help someone out and then face the chance of them getting better, but conversely perhaps not wanting to see you anymore simply because the memories are again too painful (though much fo the time one can have a MUCH better relationship with them than before!). You have to sacrifice your own ego and wade into the dirty mud.

Unfortunately the man in question here simply needed that extra push to get the deed done. He probably left the kids a decent life insurance payout because he thought they would benefit more from the money than from him.

I say that because that's what my father told me when I was nine. He wanted my permission to drive off the side of a cliff where the road ended in erosion down in southern England at seventy miles an hour (one of the more scenic suicide propositions he made). He wanted to know though, whether I would be alright with just the money from his life insurance and not him anymore. I told him "NO Daddy, I want to have YOU around for ever and ever!" - I was lucky because though that experience and others made me grown up faster, I now still have a Dad who actually took the huge chance to ask (though many would say one shouldn't ask a kid) his child what THEY wanted. He subsequently sought help, and today we have a fabulous relationship and I love him very much indeed. I still feel a little sad when I look back at how terrible he must have felt then, because really, when it comes down to it, we're all little children inside, crying to our Mommies and Daddies at our bleakest times, looking for a soft place to land and to be rescued like babies.

I hope he finds peace, and that his family are able to get the help they must truly need right now. (F)

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

IMO - this is the most disturbing part.

...took his life after being goaded by dozens of chatroom users from across the world

The internet disconnects people from normal social discourse to such a point that people forget that there are real people behind the screen.

[Alex+R 0]

IMO - this is the most disturbing part.

...took his life after being goaded by dozens of chatroom users from across the world

The internet disconnects people from normal social discourse to such a point that people forget that there are real people behind the screen.

I just can't see it that way. I think they thought he was an actor.

[JayJay 4]

But why would they think he was an actor? If you think about it, at the very bases of ourselves we are human beings - ANIMALS with natural instincts and ways of thinking and being. If they thought he was an actor, why so?

I think it IS worrying and that people in general perhaps should take this as an example of why it is sometimes very important to slow down and think before speaking and before acting.

[eric&gen 0]

What a whack jobber. If you dont like what you see in the interent chatrooms all you have to do is shut off your pc how hard is that?

[Niels Bohr 72]

Brave to kill himself. Coward to loose his children.

Suicide is an act of cowardance leaving the hard life, and forgetting everything around you. Selfish. Eventhough he died and should not be hammered like nail, he should've been more considerate to his children.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

But why would they think he was an actor? If you think about it, at the very bases of ourselves we are human beings - ANIMALS with natural instincts and ways of thinking and being. If they thought he was an actor, why so?

I think it IS worrying and that people in general perhaps should take this as an example of why it is sometimes very important to slow down and think before speaking and before acting.

That's the point - they assumed that they were talking to someone who was mentally stable. The fact is you could be talking to anyone on the internet - as all those stories about pedophile grooming clearly illustrate.

This must be weird (to say the least) for the people who did the goading.

[Caladan 19]

As a therapist-to-be I feel I must chime in with what I've learned in school, for what it's worth. And that is: suicide is the ultimate selfish act and a good therapist will try to help their patient see why that is and how their death would affect those around them, thus bringing them back to the now and hopefully getting them to realise why they should live (family, friends, etc.) It's not a cruel technique at all and it's not judging. I know the word "selfish" seems harsh, but when you examine it, how is suicide not selfish? You are giving up on your life when you must know it will hurt so many others. GRANTED, some people do not have the capacity to know it will hurt others, and that's where the word selfish does not apply.

Since this man had possible brain damage from a car accident, his behaviour may have completely changed, as can often happen when people are in car crashes. It's really sad to see.

But a good therapist isn't also just going to say, "God, you're such an attention ####### and so selfish." They're going to try to correct the negative thoughts while reinforcing that the person has a lot yet to live for, and medicate them if that's what it takes to get their brain chemistry sorted out.

I feel for the people that goaded him to his death. It isn't their fault, but god, what a thing to have to live with.

[JayJay 4]

I agree, it must be weird!

To be honest, I'd err toward the side of caution anytime while dealing with a chatroom. These people obviously didn't know him, did they! I mean hey, I met Ben online, so I know emotion can come through, but I've also seen how callous people can be - really thoughtless. Why the he11 would anyone risk a threat like that being REAL? What is this world coming to? I mean jeez - I hope they learn something from this and don't go and goad the next suicidal person, real or not! Much better to say "I was had - he wasn't really suicidal!" than "D@mn - he really DID want to kill himself!". It's a bit like stepping out in from of a semi and being crushed and going "Cr@p - I assumed he'd put his brakes on - fancy that!"

I dunno - this type of stuff just makes me shake my head. There's no way in blue heck I'd goad someone like that, and the reason I wouldn't do it is because I think it's a horrible thing to do, online or offline. Bah!

*goes away to make tea, disturbed by horrible news story*

Edited March 24, 2007 by JayJay

[Peikko 1,575]

You have to be pretty wierd to want to goad anyone into doing anything harmful whether or not you believe that what you are doing is real or imaginary in my opinion.

As for the guy himself, he was messed up and hardly likely to be saying, 'oh jee, if I kill myself in front of a bunch of people I'm being selfish, I'd better re think this'. There is no 'right' way to commit suicide end of story. Very, very sad.