Another suicide of a former reality show contestant

Parent Cafe
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<p>As of a year ago 11 reality show contestants had suicided [TheWrap</a> Investigates: 11 Players Have Committed Suicide | TheWrap.com](<a href=“http://www.thewrap.com/television/article/thewrap-investigates-11-players-have-committed-suicide-3409]TheWrap”>http://www.thewrap.com/television/article/thewrap-investigates-11-players-have-committed-suicide-3409) Another suicided this month
[Reality-contestant</a> suicides: Who’s to blame? | EW.com](<a href=“Dotdash Meredith - America's Largest Digital & Print Publisher”>Dotdash Meredith - America's Largest Digital & Print Publisher)

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<p>Contestants do undergo psychological screening prior to selection to participate, and other experts opine that the young, thrill or attention seeker that might be drawn to these kinds of shows are by nature high risk individuals. Thoughts?</p>

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<p>“I am you”</p>

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<p>Yup, LP, that is the Bristol moniker. Should we be worried (and I am not being flippant-- I am serious) . The stress and psychological impact of these shows on the contestants is more than people may have considered. Scary.</p>

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<p>“other experts opine that the young, thrill or attention seeker that might be drawn to these kinds of shows are by nature high risk individuals.”</p>

<p>Yes, and the producers, in some cases, are clearly seeking personality disordered people or substance abusers. I don’t see very strong evidence of cause and effect here.</p>

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<p>Hanna, do you think thats true for shows like Am Idol or So you think you’ve got talent? Perhaps true for survivor or great race, but not sure about the others.</p>

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<p>The family of the former Bachelorette contestant said he suffered from depression before the show, so I don’t think we can blame the shows for the deaths. However, no doubt they are looking for “exciting” contestants, which often means less-than-fully stable contestants. I think some shows are worse than others.</p>

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<p>I don’t watch the talent shows, so I don’t have any opinion on producers’ choices there. On most of the dating shows, this preference is obvious. VH1 is a terrible offender here – Flavor of Love and Rock of Love were basically personality-disorder showcases.</p>

<p>(Yes, I watched. Oh, the shame.)</p>

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<p>On the talent based show, it had gotten pretty easy to spot the fortune/fame seekers as opposed to the talented-looking-for-a-break.</p>

<p>The only ones I’ve watched are AI and Biggest Loser so I can’t comment too much. Being a contestant on any of them holds NO appeal to me whatsoever.</p>

<p>D has watched Bachelor/Bachelorette and says they all seem to be a sad bunch. She is just 14.</p>

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<p>Wanting to be on some of these reality shows ought to be a diagnostic tool for mental disorders!</p>

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<p>What about Ali and Roberto (Bachelorette)?</p>

<p>They SEEM pretty normal…</p>

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<p>I wonder what the viewership suicide rates are after watching William Hung sing, Kate Gosselin dance, or Flava Flave oogle???</p>

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<p>somemom and jshain, that’s really funny!</p>