The S-Word

Outdated in more ways than one

And you wonder why there's still a stigma attached to depression and suicide? Jesus, I've just listened to a news story on a radio show which included the details of someone who committed suicide several years ago. Problem is that the entire story was discussed at length but without a single mention of the S-word. Instead the person who had taken an overdose was said to have "died from depression". Excuse me?
Look, while depression really is a matter of life and death how on earth did the brains behind this story manage to discuss suicide without actually mentioning suicide? That takes a certain kind of genius, like the nuts who produce tampon adverts without using the word 'period' or Tena Lady ads that never, ever refer to wee.
What in the fuck is wrong with using the word 'suicide' when talking about suicide? Apart from the fact that this Medieval approach to a modern problem simply bolsters its outdated stigma, do the producers actually realise the impact this has upon listeners? Anyone feeling suicidal or living through the suicide of someone else gets just one message from the refusal to use the S-word on a show like this and that's another S-word: shame. 
As if thinking about killing yourself doesn't feel mortifying enough, now there's some implied hush-hush about the issue on a radio show. It's like telling sufferers that just when they felt freaky enough, society can make them feel even freakier.
Anyway, what in the frig did the producers of this show think would happen if they mentioned suicide? That there'd be a wave of listeners stampede towards Beachy Head or a run on paracetamol in Tesco?
The point is that this sort of refusal to speak openly about suicide simply makes the problem worse. It encourages suffers to keep their feelings to themselves, to rebuff help and support and to just plough on until suicide becomes the only, and shameful, way out. Just when they feel at their lowest, society comes along and stamps a heavy, dark boot onto what's left of them.
Thank fuck, radio discussions like this one are on their way out. Increasingly the media is treating suicide with the sensitivity and honesty and acceptance that it deserves. It's clearly not enough yet though, is it? Let's hope that any sufferers who were privy to this show realise that there's a problem although, this time, it's not with them.