
I monitor the traffic from colleges to a page on my site written specifically to capture those searching for a particular way to kill themselves. I do this because suicide is the #2 cause of death at colleges and over the years, I have been able to identify trends and wondering if I might be able to see some patterns over time.
These are my statistics for my website only and don’t represent the volume of searches of this phrase.
I will put a link to the page I’m referring to but offer a trigger warning for vulnerable individuals. Here is the link. I also have pages that people find when looking for how to talk to a friend who is cutting, for example, and what to say or do. I know to write these posts because the students ask me these questions. And if they are asking me, I know they are asking Google, too.
I have statistics from the last four months of spring 2019 and in that time, close to 3,000 visited that page per month. I’ll compare it later to the fall of 2019. The only way I can track this is that the college or university is in the ISP, Internet Service Provider. I circled it below so you could see.

I filter the statistics by putting in keywords like college or university. So technical schools are not represented unless this is in their school name. Most colleges are in summer session now and therefore I won’t see as many college names since most students leave campus this time of year.
I have several pages that were written specifically to show up on Google because I know that mental health resources are not meeting the demand which is why I advocate people listening to each other and connecting. That alone can actually prevent suicide. Because there is a shortage of resources, people turn to Dr. Google.
But there is good news. Below, you will see someone visited the “how to” page and then clicked the link I have on that page to take them to an article about how to tell a parent they want to die. So instead of going back to google determined to find a way, they went to a page about how to tell a parent. That’s good news.

The one below is from University of Pennsylvania. This student spent 15 minutes on the site which is good news because in that time, that irrational suicidal ideation will usually subside.
This student looked up eating disorders on this site which has the highest mortality and suicide rate of any mental illness. So they looked up eating disorders category and went first to Kendall’s article about her best friend dying of anorexia, then to Tamara’s article about Logan and his eating disorder and landed finally on Carly’s article about recovery from an eating disorder.

From this, we can surmise that it’s probably a student who suffers from an eating disorder and was having thoughts of suicide. Maybe he or she found hope here?
I have also seen people who’ve clicked on the link to call the suicide hotline 1-800-273-8255 or text the crisis text line 741-741 although I did not see that indicated in the activity from colleges during this four month period.
There are 105 colleges on the list
One hundred five students (or faculty) that have visited that page from February to the end of May. Not all of these are U.S. based since this site has international reach. The page I have referred to above is ranked #6 on Google for many variations of the title of that page.
Aberystwyth University |
Acadia University |
Alvernia University |
Babson College |
Binghamton University |
Boston University |
Bournemouth University |
Brigham Young University Hawaii |
California Polytechnic State University |
Cardiff University |
Central Methodist University |
Central Washington University |
Chapman University |
Columbia University |
DTU Danish Technical University |
Duke University |
Eastern Kentucky University |
Esdal College |
Falmouth University |
Fitchburg State University |
George Mason University |
Gonzaga University |
Grand Canyon University |
Hartpury College |
Hofstra University |
Humboldt State University |
Indiana State University |
Kennesaw State University |
Kenyon College |
Lebanon Valley College |
Louisiana State University |
Macalester College |
Maharishi Dayanand University Rohtak |
Marquette University |
McDaniel College |
Missouri State University |
New York University |
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ABU DHABI – ABU DHABI Foreign |
North Carolina State University |
Ohio State University |
Oxford University |
Pacific Lutheran University |
Point Park University |
Princeton University |
Quinnipiac University North Haven Campus |
Ripon College |
Roehampton University |
Royal Military College of Canada |
Rutgers University |
Sam Houston State University |
Savannah College of Art and Design |
Southern Arkansas University |
Spartanburg Methodist College |
St Mary’s University |
St. Petersburg College |
Texas Christian University |
The College of William and Mary |
The George Washington University |
The University of Manchester |
The University of Tennessee, Memphis |
The University of Western Ontario |
Trinity College |
University College Dublin |
University of Alabama |
University of Bath |
University of British Columbia |
University of Calgary |
University of California at Berkeley |
University of California, San Diego |
University of Cambridge |
University of Chicago |
University of Cincinnati |
University of Colorado |
University of Connecticut |
University of Durham |
University of Florida |
University of Hertfordshire |
University of Hertfordshire |
University of Kent |
University of Liverpool |
University of Maine System |
University of Massachusetts |
University of Minnesota |
University of New Hampshire |
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center |
University of Pennsylvania |
University of Plymouth |
University of Reading |
University of Redlands |
University of Rhode Island |
University of South Carolina |
University of St. Thomas |
University of Stirling |
University of Tennessee |
University of Toledo |
University of Toronto |
University of Vermont |
University of Wales Trinity Saint David |
University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, WI |
University of Wisconsin Madison |
Washington & Lee University |
York University |
These statistics are shocking. I didn’t know eating disorders had the highest mortality and suicide rate of any mental illness. I wish my daughter’s psychiatrist had told me that. We spent so long at her first and only appointment discussing this issue. He read us the Canada Food Guide. A explanation of the risk would have been much more helpful.
You are doing an amazing job Anne Moss.
The Canada Food Guide? Really? I’m sorry that was not addressed but doesn’t surprise me. No one ever did with Charles and he had notebooks full of suicidal ideation.
Thanks for commenting Stacy.