British Media Outlets Are Trying to Blame a Student’s Suicide on an MDMA Comedown

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British Media Outlets Are Trying to Blame a Student’s Suicide on an MDMA Comedown

The misleading dangers of the term "suicide Tuesday" are very real.

Screen grab via Daily Mail.

This week reports emerged in a number of leading British newspapers regarding the suicide of university student. 18 year old Ben Stollery, a student from the Peak District region in North England was reportedly found hanged by a river bank near Manchester Canoe Club. The incident took place three days after Ben went out with friends, an event that has been afforded significance in his suicide after traces of MDMA were found in his blood after a toxicology report.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the evidence of MDMA intake has largely dominated British press coverage of the incident. The Metro ran the headline "College student battling depression killed himself days after taking MDMA," where the Daily Mail opted for "Brilliant college student who had battled depression killed himself several days after taking MDMA on what experts call suicide Tuesday." There are plenty of other similar examples, all of which reference the role his "massive comedown" must have played in him taking his own life.

Comedowns are a thing. Of course they are. It is a widely recognised that after a big weekend taking ecstasy or MDMA in its powder form, users regularly feel a slump in mood over the ensuing days. However, these reports refer to 'suicide tuesday', a phenomenon described by the Metro as "a nickname given to the trend for people who use recreational drugs on a Saturday then kill themselves when they fully come down from the high the following Tuesday"—directly attributing Ben's suicide to his intake of the drug. The Metro, it is worth noting, also fail to ground this "trend" in any statistics or reports of similar incidents.

In the Daily Mail, the reference to "suicide Tuesday" is attributed to toxicologist Julie Evan, who served at the hearing and is reported as saying "'MDMA is a social drug and it increases energy but there is a term called Suicide Tuesday. A downside is that it can lead to depression, anxiety, tiredness and feeling hungry." From this the suicide coroner concluded, "On the balance of probabilities, I do believe his state of mind was influenced by MDMA and the comedown part of this drug."

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Newspapers pursuing misleading narratives is nothing new, particularly when it comes to drug use and club culture, but this case carries some worrying consequences. The mainstream media's desire to focus the dialogue around the tragedy on MDMA is not only sensationalist, but poses misdirection from significant facts and distractions from very real issues.

Screen grab via The Metro.

In order to clarify the effects of comedowns on mental health, THUMP reached out to Valerie Curran, Professor of Psychopharmacology at UCL. She was the first to acknowledge, during our conversation, that a comedown from MDMA is of course a natural reaction. This response, as she put it, is in down to the brains efforts to replenish serotonin, but is more often than not the simple result of anti-climax. "You take MDMA on the Friday, have an amazing time with your friends experiencing this high, so by the time Monday comes around, everything feels awful."

Yet, she was keen to stress, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest a correlation between MDMA consumption and suicide. While she conceded that "the drug might have affected a slight dip in mood," she also clearly stated that "studies into comedowns have never produced a correlation between ecstasy use and suicide." As she saw it, much of the purported connection between MDMA comedowns and suicide is down to the popularisation of the term "suicide Tuesday," noting its use in the articles reporting Ben's death. The term in fact finds its roots in a study carried out by Curran as far back as 1997. The study, (titled Mood and cognitive effects of MDMA, 'ecstasy': Week-end 'high' followed by mid-week 'low') was the first comprehensive look at the mental recovery following recreational MDMA intake, and as such was an introduction—in a scientific capacity at least—to the idea of a comedown.

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As Curran tells THUMP, what the study coined a "mid-week low", was frustratingly picked up by the American media who transformed it into the far more provocative "suicide Tuesday." The danger, as ever, with provocation is that over time a media buzzword has become assumed fact, and apparently an appropriate term for a toxicologist to reference when listing possible causes of death.

The original 1997 study did report that MDMA users experienced a depression in mood, yet returned to the idea that "it could also be argued that the link between depression and MDMA may not be a direct consequence of neurochemical changes." In other words, that an MDMA comedown is unlikely ever to be a chemical reaction, as much as is a psychological response.

The suicide Tuesday myth is, of course, unhelpful when it comes to reasonable, informed conversations about drugs legislation, but that's not the really damaging affect here. According to the Metro Ben Stollery had a recorded history of depression, something he was seeking medical help for but felt he couldn't talk to his family about. This story is far from isolated. The stigma surrounding depression is still very real, particularly among young males who feel they can't discuss their thoughts openly and safely.

Reports of Ben's suicide cited academic studies as a major pressure on his life, so with that in mind THUMP also contacted Student Minds, an organisation which, while working with University students, oversee and enable frank conversations about depression and academic life. Anoushka Bonwick, project and relationships officer for the organisation, confirmed the importance of honest and truthful conversations about depression among students. "Student Minds believes that it is important for students to feel that they are able to talk to each other about their mental health; speaking about mental health openly and listening to someone without judgement can be incredibly empowering." As Student Minds see it, the dialogue has to be about breaking down misconceptions around depression, and creating a safe space for students going forward. "It is important that we cultivate this kind of culture for two reasons: firstly, as this can be the first step to tackling stigma and secondly, so that in a time of need, students feel that they have someone to turn to."

Ben Stollery's death is a tragedy, yet the ongoing attempts from certain fractions of the media to focus his death on MDMA consumption only serves to distract from the very real issue of depression among young males—a genuine, proven cause of death all over the world, every single day. The phrase suicide Tuesday might appear an innocuous joke about the mid-week slump after a big night out, but when used as it has been here, to explain an actual suicide, it is a dangerous misdirection from the reality of the situation.

Ben's family are fundraising in his memory.

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