Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins has asked Twitch viewers to stop donating to their favorite streamers to say that they are having suicidal thoughts.
Twitch’s biggest star weighed in on the subject, saying that it is “super serious”, after his friend Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo received such a message during a recent stream and was clearly devastated by it.
These donations are becoming an ever more common occurrence for the biggest streamers on various platforms and Ninja, who has done a great deal of work for suicide awareness, wants people that are suffering to know that they should speak to a professional.
“You are not alone, there are millions of people that go through it every single day, and do not donate to a streamer and tell them that you’re about to kill yourself […]
Like, you can just say that you’re not in a good place and you want some advice, I don’t know… and the advice will be what I just told you: to go and seek help!”
He goes on to explain that putting that sort of pressure on anyone is “not very humane” and that the most recent suicidal donation had “literally crushed” DrLupo.
“Putting that pressure on a streamer is, it’s not very humane. Like, it literally crushed Ben tonight. It’s the internet too, so it’s like who do you even trust?”
It is sometimes suspected that people send this sort of donation to troll a streamer or make sure that they take notice of them, but it is impossible for the streamer to know whether that is the case so they have to take all such donations seriously.
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DrLupo took to Twitter after the situation on his stream to plead with people to find a therapist if they are having such thoughts, and to reiterate that streamers do care but that these things take a toll.
The likable entertainer has also spoken directly to his stream in the past after a similar situation and clearly found it a very emotional topic to discuss.
If you are from the UK and looking for somebody to talk to, please contact the Samaritans.
Call 116 123
Email jo@samaritans.org