I have often wondered why human beings should have to wait for courts or psychiatrists to declare them insane or infirm, when they may be perfectly capable of making this declaration to the public on their own, for mosts practical intents and purposes. Public declarations of insanity, such as those that individuals can make on the Internet, may serve as a record for family, friends and others of an individual "lost his marbles" and how they got them back, should that happen.
My psychologist suggests that I stop writing in my suicide blog. "You don't know what effect what you say will have on others," she says. But, the idea that my thoughts of suicide can convince others to commit suicide seems to ignore a simple fact: it's people's own depression, conflicts, disappointments and "tristezas" that make them suicidal, not someone elses. A person who does not share any of these characteristic symptoms will find this journal wholly irrelevant, unless she has a family member, friend or client who shares these symptoms. In that case, these reflections may be useful to someone.
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I think your psychiatrist is worried because there are some mental afflictions which are apparently increased by sociological acceptance of said conditions. Even worse, in the case I note above, many of the sites that had existed gave advice on how to avoid detection of said illness and how to make it worse.
I don't think that this is true of depression; for that matter, at least for Clinical depression, one of the treatments is to get consistent positive social interactions; while talking directly to people may be better than blogging for this purpose, blogging is better than no interaction.
Even more on point, a site like this could help people who are clinically depressed (or with Bipolar Disorder) recognize similar ideation in themselves, and seek treatment (at least in the U.S.A., under-diagnosis of mental disorders including Clinical Depression are a significant cause of suicide).
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