Weird Happenings in Bridgend, Wales

Requiem4adream

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7247421.stm

Bridgend in Wales has a population of 39,000 or so, this would mean that the suicide rate in the past year is 3 times higher than in other areas of Wales. There is an ongoing investigation into the unusually high number, even the possibility of suicide pacts. The "evils" of Myspace/bebo etc get a murmur in some the articles i read.

Are these figures in Bridgend a statistical coincidence i wonder or is there a more deep rooted problem there. How much relevance do you guys place on where you live into your personal happiness? I've always thought the town i live in sucks but i wonder is it subconciously much more relevant to personal happiness.

helimachoptor

I think where you live is important, but would i end my life if i wanted to live in D4 and wasnt able to? Nope.

Pherekydes

Requiem4adream wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7247421.stm

Bridgend in Wales has a population of 39,000 or so, this would mean that the suicide rate in the past year is 3 times higher than in other areas of Wales.

There was some serious misinformation/ignorance on the part of the media reporting this case. Bridgend is both a town and a county borough. The borough's population is 3 and a third times that of the town, so the suicide figures would be broadly in line with those across Wales.

Heisenberg.

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thelordofcheese

The trend makes more sense once you've been to Bridgend

Heisenberg.

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Heisenberg.

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afatbollix

thats a bit weird mate linking us to here bebo...

Heisenberg.

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HungryJoey

The Scientist wrote: »

Life sucks eh...
seemed like a nice girl.
RIP.
http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3854508723

Anyone notice the comment on her page, from your man " The hitcher " ..wtf ?

HungryJoey

HungryJoey wrote: »

Anyone notice the comment on her page, from your man " The hitcher " ..wtf ?

4Chan/Encyclopedia dramaticia R-tard.

ghostdancer

HungryJoey wrote: »

Anyone notice the comment on her page, from your man " The hitcher " ..wtf ?

hahaa, that's the best bit.

brilliant that people are going mad with him as well.

much better than "i didnt kno u but u wr my angl RIP" bull****.

Bob the Builder

The Scientist wrote: »

Explain.....
If you dont mind...

Place has a gammy atmosphere, it's a place where there's not an activity to be had, and the hangout spot(middle of the town) feels like a graveyard. A bit of investment and a few facilities would help greatly. I passed through it on car trip.

the hitcher seems a tad weird?

phasers

if I placed that much emphasis on where I lived I'd be long dead

truecrippler

Jahsus, what a loss. I probably would have to.

thelordofcheese

The Scientist wrote: »

Explain.....
If you dont mind...

It's possibly one of the most depressng places i've ever been to, it's a grey lifeless town with very little in the way of facilities beyond shops and pubs.

Also, Bridgend is one of the poorer places in wales, as most of the big employers in the area have pulled out in the last few years, which doesn't help.

That girl committed suicide? Very peculiar then, just what she says about herself:

I just love to live life to the full...Always up 4 a laugh and don't like to takin things to serious!!..

So, could it be a suicide pact then? To stay on topic, I think where you are greatly affects a person.

Dudess

helimachoptor wrote: »

I think where you live is important, but would i end my life if i wanted to live in D4 and wasnt able to? Nope.

Not really comparing like with like. Living in a sh1t-heap and being miserable about it is not the same as wanting to live in D4.

The Scientist wrote: »

Hopefully im causing no offence to anyone from the area, but look at Midleton Cork, highest rate in Ireland apparently....

And apparently Macroom's up there. Can't understand why. They're both very dreary towns but it's not as if there's no life outside of them. Midleton is in the Cork commuter belt - without traffic it's about half an hour's drive from the city. Macroom's not much further.
As for social cohesion, I know a lot of people from both towns and they appear to be very closeknit communities.
What the two towns do have in common though, is fairly high drug consumption amongst their youth - not your one or two Es the odd Saturday night, but crazy amounts of pills, speed and cannabis. Dunno, maybe this is what's leading to such widespread depression.

Rhyme

Makes me think of the town of Sandford from Hot Fuzz. Is the crime rate really low to compliment the high suicide rate?

D-Generate

Not that I am weird.... (which I might be)
But I checked up her story and she committed suicide within a day of her cousin dying in hospital from his suicide attempt. So anyway I decided to check out her cousins page and after a few pages of comments out comes a motive for his.
Basically the gist is that it appears he was in a relationship with some girl and was caught by her trying to get it on with another girl (through Bebo no less). What follows is a good few comments by his jilted ex-girlfriend telling him to get out of her life and that she wants nothing to do with him. He then tries to top himself and ends up in hospital and his page begins to fill with vitriolic comment directed towards his girlfriend by his friends, until his sister tells people to stop attacking his ex-girlfriend. His sister was also best buds with the girl Kelly who commit suicide. So I guess there is some reason for his suicide but hers..... who knows

MooseJam

suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

sinlessgunner

Felt obliged to post here as the topic is close to my heart. Somone close to me lost a friend and a brother to suicide and let me tell you that what is happening in the area where this person lives is frightening. I have actually lost count of the people under the age of 25 who have taken their own lives in the area in the past 3 years or so. I think that when someone takes their own life it just gives another person who has been thinking about doing it courage to take the last step. Fair enough there are going to be exceptions to that rule but it shocks me to the core. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Don't let it touch your life like it has touched mine and others around me.

dsmythy

No matter how many of them I've looked at it still freaks me out. It's like the person who owned the account is speaking from the dead.

There is no suicide pact or any of that stuff going on here. As someone eluded to earlier the suicide rate is the same in that area as in the rest of Wales which in turn generally has a higher rate of suicide than England.

The Scots have the highest of the UK i think.

Conor108

Another body has just been found. Bringing the total to 17:eek:

16 Year Old found hanging from tree in woodland. 5 miles out of Brigend town centre.

Sky News

gurramok

What a waste, whole life ahead of them.
If they only had a bit of cop on to realise help is out there when your in a corner..

keefg

I find it a bit strange that the police and local authorities are strongly denying any link between these suicides.

Surely that can't be right?

With such a concentration of suicides between young people a lot of whom knew each other, there must be some sort of connection.

Or as some people have mentioned that maybe it's just the area to blame? No work / no prospects have young people thinking there's nothing worth living for.

Sad story alright.

Dragan

Deleted User wrote: »

So, could it be a suicide pact then? To stay on topic, I think where you are greatly affects a person.

I think you'll find not a lot of people put "Really depressed and planning to kill myself. The world doesn't understand me such and such...." on their Bebo dude.

Trode

ITV had a spectacularly tasteless report on this last night. The gist of it was 'Nobody knows why this is is happening, but IT IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT THE FAULT OF THE MEDIA THAT IS CRAWLING ALL OVER THE TOWN AND SLAVERING OVER EVERY DEATH, OH NO! The police are trying to say it might be, and are telling us to leave it alone, but they HAVE NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF IT IS US, so we're staying.
Don't listen to them, they're probably wrong, and we're almost certainly right.'

It may or may not be accurate, but the amount of times they mentioned that the deaths had no proven link to the media attention seriously outnumbered the amount of times they actually mentioned the dead girls name. It was as sick and hilarious as a baby-cannon.