New mental health signs at UNT.

[JesseMartin]

Moving past the mostly asinine "thoughts" with a few intelligent comments sprinkled in here..."highest-point signs" are best served in conjunction with other thoughtfully placed ones.  Only a very small percentage of suicides take place at, or soon after, finding points of highest altitudes.  Usually the self-inflicted wounds occur somewhere isolated.  It may seem daunting to not only do as follows, but to have them visible by the public that UNT hopes would never have to think of things like reality, but it would be more effective to have them in stairwells of residence halls (where they would be seen before retiring to one's room), exits of major academic buildings (likely last points of contact before students who reside off-campus would see them before going home), and exiting all major common buildings like the Union, Rec Center (though endorphins released through sufficient exercise reduce the likelihood of suicide significantly), and Willis Library.

For those of you who think it's funny, see what happens when your kids stab themselves or swallows their whole medicine chest with a fifth of bourbon.  I'm probably the most offensive asshole on here, but when it comes to situations that involve people actually getting hurt, a lot of people need to watch their damn mouths.  It's one thing to talk about how athletes should have tough skin when reading a fan board, but it's entirely different when you start going off about student suicides, because there should be NO presumption of toughness there, regardless of the public persona they may create, and the fact is, what you discuss about the issue online might be the last thing someone ever reads if they're already in a bad enough place.

And if that's not enough...if statistics hold true, unless you only socialize online and have a tiny family, every one of you has a friend - and over half of you have a family member - who has attempted (not considered, but ATTEMPTED) suicide.  If you don't know about it, your attitudes might be the reason why no one has told you.  If you only want to find out after they're dead, then keep running your mouths around everyone else the way you do on here, and you're well on your way.

[eulessismore]

New mental health signs: people with no direct link to UNT will stop you at work and say things like, "hey, what do you think of your new head football coach?  I saw him on TV and he just seemed like a really down to earth, professional guy".  Me, "I think he'll do a great job"!

[UNT90]

8 hours ago, JesseMartin said:

Moving past the mostly asinine "thoughts" with a few intelligent comments sprinkled in here..."highest-point signs" are best served in conjunction with other thoughtfully placed ones.  Only a very small percentage of suicides take place at, or soon after, finding points of highest altitudes.  Usually the self-inflicted wounds occur somewhere isolated.  It may seem daunting to not only do as follows, but to have them visible by the public that UNT hopes would never have to think of things like reality, but it would be more effective to have them in stairwells of residence halls (where they would be seen before retiring to one's room), exits of major academic buildings (likely last points of contact before students who reside off-campus would see them before going home), and exiting all major common buildings like the Union, Rec Center (though endorphins released through sufficient exercise reduce the likelihood of suicide significantly), and Willis Library.

For those of you who think it's funny, see what happens when your kids stab themselves or swallows their whole medicine chest with a fifth of bourbon.  I'm probably the most offensive asshole on here, but when it comes to situations that involve people actually getting hurt, a lot of people need to watch their damn mouths.  It's one thing to talk about how athletes should have tough skin when reading a fan board, but it's entirely different when you start going off about student suicides, because there should be NO presumption of toughness there, regardless of the public persona they may create, and the fact is, what you discuss about the issue online might be the last thing someone ever reads if they're already in a bad enough place.

And if that's not enough...if statistics hold true, unless you only socialize online and have a tiny family, every one of you has a friend - and over half of you have a family member - who has attempted (not considered, but ATTEMPTED) suicide.  If you don't know about it, your attitudes might be the reason why no one has told you.  If you only want to find out after they're dead, then keep running your mouths around everyone else the way you do on here, and you're well on your way.

I'm very familiar with the subject. This thread isn't going to cause anyone to kill themselves, and to say so is just being pretentious. 

I'd like to remind people that this is a college message board.

 

[JesseMartin]

14 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

I'm very familiar with the subject. This thread isn't going to cause anyone to kill themselves, and to say so is just being pretentious. 

I'd like to remind people that this is a college message board.

 

Since you're so familiar, please, tell us exactly what the magic formula is that creates that last straw that puts people over the edge.  The entire mental health community has been waiting for such a degree of predictive capabilities.

[UNT90]

4 minutes ago, JesseMartin said:

Since you're so familiar, please, tell us exactly what the magic formula is that creates that last straw that puts people over the edge.  The entire mental health community has been waiting for such a degree of predictive capabilities.

Let me tell you what it isn't:

Jackassery on a college football message board. 

But I think the entire mental health community already knew that...

Edited February 28, 2016 by UNT90

[JesseMartin]

Instead of leaving that hanging I'm just going to go ahead and disprove you.  Your blanket statement was that "this thread isn't going to cause anyone to kill themselves."  Since you can't know with any degree of certainty what else will be said in this thread (and note, you didn't say "what has already been said in this thread," but rather the more open-ended "this thread"), and since online interactions have been shown to have been the final thing that has put people over the edge, then although it's a statistical unlikelihood that this particular discussion would become something that would have such an effect, the tiny possibility of that happening is still greater than zero, which is where you placed it.

There are a few times when erring on the side of caution should be the standard, and suicide is one of them.  I don't see any triggers that would cause anyone to take your original post in a way that could add to a spiral, but the direction some of the comments are headed could lead to some very jacked-up material.  And you can't be certain that someone wouldn't have opened this thread after seeing the title and hoped for some uplifting information that they needed at that particular moment.  I don't see anything thus far in anyone's comments that would likely be the final push, but you can't be sure how far down some of their directions they or someone else might take it.

So you want to be cautious about not predicting or hoping for any success in football, but choose to be incautious when discussing suicide?  Got it.

[UNT90]

17 minutes ago, JesseMartin said:

Instead of leaving that hanging I'm just going to go ahead and disprove you.  Your blanket statement was that "this thread isn't going to cause anyone to kill themselves."  Since you can't know with any degree of certainty what else will be said in this thread (and note, you didn't say "what has already been said in this thread," but rather the more open-ended "this thread"), and since online interactions have been shown to have been the final thing that has put people over the edge, then although it's a statistical unlikelihood that this particular discussion would become something that would have such an effect, the tiny possibility of that happening is still greater than zero, which is where you placed it.

There are a few times when erring on the side of caution should be the standard, and suicide is one of them.  I don't see any triggers that would cause anyone to take your original post in a way that could add to a spiral, but the direction some of the comments are headed could lead to some very jacked-up material.  And you can't be certain that someone wouldn't have opened this thread after seeing the title and hoped for some uplifting information that they needed at that particular moment.  I don't see anything thus far in anyone's comments that would likely be the final push, but you can't be sure how far down some of their directions they or someone else might take it.

So you want to be cautious about not predicting or hoping for any success in football, but choose to be incautious when discussing suicide?  Got it.

First, if anyone is coming to the UNT football forum looking for "uplifting" information right now, there are about 1,000 threads that will push them over the edge.

Secondly, online interactions MAY have been the final straw in a small number of suicides, but those individuals had far greater emotional issues that led to that final step.

Thirdly, where the Internet is heavily involved in suicide, it usually involves online bullying, which I think we can all agree has not occurred on this thread considering no one has been targeted in this thread (outside of 23's attempt to get me banned. Maybe your concern should be directed my way?)

This whole conversation is just ridiculous.

If anything, this thread has raised awareness of how to get help. Ever stop to think of that? Maybe someone was so depressed by the state of UNT athletics that THAT was the final straw to push them over the edge, but they came to this thread, clicked the link, and their life was saved.

Just about as likely as what you are proposing... 

 

Edited February 28, 2016 by UNT90

[JesseMartin]

Considering everything therein can be classified as "maybes" and "sometimes," not only are they still not the sum total of occurrences, but still go against the apparent certainly previously stated.  Although yes, there is one part we agree on, which is that in the long run, hopefully the message to get help reaches the right people at the right time.

[meangreenthirteen]

Holy shit this thread gave me actual cancer.  I can't say I'm surprised but some of you should be ashamed of yourselves.  

[UNT90]

17 minutes ago, meangreenthirteen said:

Holy shit this thread gave me actual cancer.  I can't say I'm surprised but some of you should be ashamed of yourselves.  

You can't say that. That's terribly insensitive to cancer patients!!!

My God, man!!!!!!!!!111!!1!1

[HarringtonFishSmeller]

On 2/25/2016 at 2:19 PM, greenjoe said:

I had to look up the term, "LGBTQ."

 

I'm surprised that this University or any government sanctioned agency, or corner gas station for that matter, would use such a term.

 

GO MEAN GREEN 

It means when you look at your sex organs, you don't know what you are.  It's yet another mental illness people are calling normal these days.  Now, apparently, it's a "you've got your own phone number" kind of mental illness. 

[UTSA Fan]

On Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 8:49 PM, UTSA Fan said:

This thread is terrible. Please Lord get this to 5 pages asap.

[Gibbz]

This directly impacts North Texas football and belongs in this sub-forum. I for one think people whom suffer from psychological afflictions are vaginas, and I do not want these signs affecting our boys.

[HarringtonFishSmeller]

6 hours ago, Gibbz said:

This directly impacts North Texas football and belongs in this sub-forum. I for one think people whom suffer from psychological afflictions are vaginas, and I do not want these signs affecting our boys.

"I'm a woman!  And, an East German woman at that - behold my hairy, East German woman pits!  SPOILER ALERT:  Nadia Comăneci is a man, baby!  Yeah!"

[Aldo]

6 hours ago, Gibbz said:

I for one think people whom suffer from psychological afflictions are vaginas

Honestly can't tell if facetious in response to this thread, or if you honestly think 1 in every 4 Americans is a vagina with legs.

oh and it's people who*

[HarringtonFishSmeller]

The vaginas quotient runs high in the Participation Trophy Generation of young "men."  That's why we pretty much make it a rule not to hire anyone under the age of 35. 

In fact, I think probably one of the best questions you can ask during an interview is, "How many participation trophies do you have at home from your childhood?"  If the answer is, "Oh, too many to count!  And, we had pizza and cake parties at the end of the season, too, when coach handed them out!" that's enough red flags to physically pick up the candidate out of his chair and toss his ass out the door.

What you want is someone who says, "What's a participation trophy?  If we didn't finish in first place, my dad made me sleep out on the back porch until the next season, and eat dog food with Max The Marvelous Border Collie, who we rescued from a den of wolves as a pup in the wild."  That's a kid who will sell for you and not get his dauber down when people tell him, "No!  You suck, and your product sucks, and your company sucks!  Go get your suck on somewhere else, animalfart breath!"

I carry this over to coaching children.  I had a parent say to me about his daughter, "I'm sorry that my girl tries to take the ball away from everyone."  This girl would take the ball from her own teammates because she wanted to score.  I told him, "No.  She has something you can't coach.   She has a natural striker's mentality - all or nothing, give me the ball, I want to score, I want to win!"  You have to have one of those, maybe two, on your soccer teams.

(You also need one or two dirty defenders in the middle who will stomp the opponents toes, kick their shins, and give bruising elbows.  Every striker and midfielder who goes into their quarter of the field must pay a price.  Last Saturday, my daughter's soccer team lost for the first time, and she whined to me, "Daddy, number 9 kept stepping on my toes, that's not fair."  I told her, "That's the way soccer is when you get older, sweetie.  There is no 'fair.'  You're going to have to stomp back.") 

These personality types rub many people wrong.  But, they make great soccer strikers, baseball and softball catchers and starting pitchers, quarterbacks, point guards.  Very few will grow up, look in their shorts, and wonder which sex they are.  They don't have time for that - there is winning to do.

So, that this can stay North Texas football-related, Coach Littrell needs to get the team at midfield on the first day of spring practices and say, "Everyone look in your pants.  If you see your penis, but think you are a girl, go back to the locker room now, turn in your equipment, and ask for a scholarship release.  I'll have it waiting on my secretary's desk the next morning." 

I know that as hopeless as it seems when you see these limp-wristed, whiny young men on television, mewling like women for "safe spaces" and crap, you have to take the Yoda mentality, so that when Ghost Ben says, "This was the last one" you can say, "No, there is another"...and, hope against all hope that there are still some men out there fathering and guiding their sons to unconfused manhood. 

Edited March 2, 2016 by HarringtonFishSmeller

[Quoner]

1 hour ago, HarringtonFishSmeller said:

The vaginas quotient runs high in the Participation Trophy Generation of young "men."  That's why we pretty much make it a rule not to hire anyone under the age of 35.

Man, just think of all the male millennials who read this stellar pitch, got excited and are now super bummed. TFLF giveth, but TFLF is gonna damn sure taketh away.

[HarringtonFishSmeller]

37 minutes ago, Quoner said:

Man, just think of all the male millennials who read this stellar pitch, got excited and are now super bummed. TFLF giveth, but TFLF is gonna damn sure taketh away.

That position is, as Coach Littrell would say, is teeing it high.  Really high.  So high, even a Participation Trophy kid should be able to fulfill it. 

Sample Sales Script:
Insurance Person:  "Are you alive?"
Person:  "So far."

Insurance Person:  "Do you have a house, live in a house, or have a car?"
Person:  "Usually.  When I'm not on a bender after a North Texas football or basketball game and my wife lets me back in the house."

Insurance Person:  "Can you remember your birth date and how to spell things like your name and address on a computer?"
Person:  "I have a degree from North Texas, don't I?"

Insurance Person:  "You can quote your own insurance quotes at www.uquotem.com!  You don't even have to talk to insurance people upfront.  It's like having a secret lover!"
Person:  "Sweet."

Insurance Person:  "Yeah, and there are links there for health and life insurance, too, if you need quotes for those."
Person:  "Oh, yeah.  I need those if I'm sick or dead.  Barack Obama says so."

Insurance Person:  "He didn't say anything about life, just health."
Person:  "He's half-black and half-white, just like health and life insurance - I have to have one and then there's the other."

Insurance Person:  "Good point!"

If sold:  80% commission to Participation Trophy Generation survivor.

 

[Aldo]

33 minutes ago, HarringtonFishSmeller said:

That position is, as Coach Littrell would say, is teeing it high.  Really high.  So high, even a Participation Trophy kid should be able to fulfill it. 

Sample Sales Script:
Insurance Person:  "Are you alive?"
Person:  "So far."

Insurance Person:  "Do you have a house, live in a house, or have a car?"
Person:  "Usually.  When I'm not on a bender after a North Texas football or basketball game and my wife lets me back in the house."

Insurance Person:  "Can you remember your birth date and how to spell things like your name and address on a computer?"
Person:  "I have a degree from North Texas, don't I?"

Insurance Person:  "You can quote your own insurance quotes at www.uquotem.com!  You don't even have to talk to insurance people upfront.  It's like having a secret lover!"
Person:  "Sweet."

Insurance Person:  "Yeah, and there are links there for health and life insurance, too, if you need quotes for those."
Person:  "Oh, yeah.  I need those if I'm sick or dead.  Barack Obama says so."

Insurance Person:  "He didn't say anything about life, just health."
Person:  "He's half-black and half-white, just like health and life insurance - I have to have one and then there's the other."

Insurance Person:  "Good point!"

If sold:  80% commission to Participation Trophy Generation survivor.

 

3/10

But here's a participation award