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Causes of teen suicide essay
Causes of teen suicide essay
Suicide amongst youth
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The present text reports situations when an adolescent is at risk of suicide. Some of these situations are parts of depression, social pressure, drug abuse, and family difficulties. All of these factors make an adolescent feel overwhelmed and confused. There are many events that an adolescent goes through before taking their lives. Finding rates of suicide vary in males and females because the males use more fatal methods than females. What are the feelings that make adolescents take their own life? All the information can be useful to help someone with the problem because it describes how help a person without making the problem worse. There are also some myths that people believe that are not helping to prevent a suicide. Are there some signs to identify suicidal adolescents? This research helps to understand why some teenagers should want to take their lives and what can be done to prevent it? What programs are available to deter them making this negative choice?
Adolescent Suicide
Adolescent suicide rates are increasing in our society. "Suicide is the third- leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds", according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention "after accidents and homicides" (as cited in Feldman, 2012, p.364). This information is unpleasant to know because there is something wrong that make it happen.
There are many factors involved in a suicide. Nock has noted that "adolescence is the time of sexual identity and relationships and a need for independence that often conflicts with the rules and expectations set by others"(as cited in New, 2012, para.8). An adolescent could feel pressure from their parents, teachers, and friends so that adolescent may deal with a big obstacle.
Factors that Place Adoles...
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...o this because that is an indication that something is wrong with the adolescent.
Suicides are unplanned: people always try to find alternatives to their problems and draw attention of others before suicide.
A person, who has previous suicide attempt, will not try again: some people try several times until they commit the suicide.
Only a certain type of people kills themselves: Suicide does not respect race class, or gender.
If an adolescent has any signs of depression, look for help in hospital or doctor who could make refer to a specialist or program. Frankel and Kranz (1994) have declared "when a person who has been depressed for long time seems to cheer up, that is often a bad sign"(p.22). Adolescent commit suicide because our attention is missing in their life. Nobody notices signs of an adolescent who is depressed because people are ill informed.
Approximately 24% of 12-17 year olds have considered suicide and up to 10% have attempted suicide.” (Suicide Intervention Training PG 3). Teens today are very likely to commit suicide for various reasons. In today’s society there are a lot of judging and bullying cases around the world. No matter how much we promote a bully free zone there will always be a couple of cliques, or individuals, who want to bring others down and who do not know the seriousness of bullying. Although bullying is a big cause of suicide, the leading cause is a mental illness that many people are familiar with called depression. “Psychiatric disorders can affect diverse aspects of an individual’s life.”( Dispelling Myth Surrounding Teen Suicide, PG 1). If you or someone you know seems down most of the time, the best thing to do is to go see someone about your despair. If you are diagnosed with depression, prescribed depression medicine can help and can be one way to prevent suicidal thoughts or actions. “There is a lot of evidence that suicide is preventable.”(Cont. Principles of Suicide Prevention, PG
A mother finds her 17 year old teenage son hanging from the rafters of their basement. To hear of this occurrence is not rare in society today. Every 90 minutes a teenager in this country commits suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. The National suicide rate has increased 78% between 1952 and 1992. The rate for 15-19 year olds rose from two per 100,000 to 12.9, more than 600 percent. (Special report, Killing the Pain, Rae Coulli)
There are many things which can drive a teen to commit suicide some of them are as simple as making fun of the “fat” kid in class; others can come from the mental images from witnessing a shooting. There are four major issues which contribute to teen suicide such as depression, family problems, risk factors, and teens reactions to there climate. Depression, unfortunately, is one of the biggest factors of today’s teenage suicide problems and some of the reasons for it are from the student’s own peers, “being depressed is triggered by loss or rejection (Joan 59).” Depression can be f...
Today, teenage suicide is considered a big issue in America. Many factors contribute to this action whether it is overdosing on alcohol and drugs, cutting ones wrist with a sharp object, or pulling the trigger of a gun to put an end to their existence. Suicide is on the rise due to many factors such as family issues, social issues, and psychological issues. Increased education and awareness for the victims and their families could drastically reduce the number of suicide attempts yearly.
The third leading cause of death among teens and young adults ages fifteen to twenty-four is suicide. An examination of suicide by sex indicates that in the United States, nearly five times more 15- to 19-year-old boys than girls committed suicide in 1998 (NCHS, 2000b). Firearms are the most common way of committing suicide; with hanging being the second most common. When a teen commits suicide it could be because they are suffering from depression, being bullied at school, or dealing with a lot of stress. These issues can be very serious to teens that are trying to get their lives together and everything just seems to be going wrong. They begin to feel like there is no way out, so they consider suicide, but they quickly dismiss it. Then things keep getting worse and worse until they think suicide is their only way out, therefore they end their life; leaving a wake of hurting behind for their family (Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior...
Each year, thousands of children are dying, not from cancer, getting shot, or car accidents, but by their own hands. They make the choice to take their lives; they commit suicide. To begin, what is “Suicide”? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, suicide is the act or instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally. The number of teenagers who take their lives is rapidly increasing each year. Teen suicide is escalating out of control and no one seems to realize just how severe the issue has become. Every day and average of 18 young Americans end their lives, one every 90 minutes. The National Institute of Mental Health believes that as many as 50-150 suicides are attempted for each one that is completed , meaning that for every noted suicide completed, about 50-150 more attempts are made (Adolescent Suicide). With these alarming statistics people need to be more aware of the causes and warning signs that often lead to suicide in young adolescents.
There are multiple negative effects of teen suicide. Large numbers of teens that do not have support from friends, peer groups, family, or religious association may and can feel isolated from the world and disconnected. (Larry’s). The tragedy of a young person dying as a result of overwhelming hopelessness is devastating to everyone. Suicide rates differ between boys and girls. Girls think about and attempt suicide about twice as often as boys, and attempt suicide by overdosing. Boys die by suicide about four times as often as girls, due to using more lethal methods, such as firearms, hanging, or jumping from heights. (Nock). There are several different factors that may lead a teenager to take their life, but the most common is depression. Feelings of hopelessness and anxiety, along with feelings of being trapped in a life that one cannot handle, are contributors to teen suicide. It is important to be on the lookout for signs that your teen may attempt suicide. Some of the warning signs are similar to normal adolescent behavior. At times, preventing teen suicide means treating teen depression. Since 75 percent of the people who commit suicide are depressed (according to the University of Texas), it is a beneficial start to begin treating the symptoms of teen depression. (Teen Suicide Overview).
Suicidal tendencies in adolescents begin around the ages of 10 through 19, with warning signs, prevention, treatment, and the causes and effects it has on the human psyche. Suicide is when someone decides to take his or her own life because they are suffering from a painful mental illness and have lost hope in who they are. Because when hope is lost, some feel like suicide is the only solution to truly make the adolescent pain go away permanently. Scientific evidence that shows the people who have committed suicide have a diagnosable treatable mental disorder or substance abuse disorder (The National Institute of Mental Health, 2010). Those people might have been suffering from illnesses such as depression, mood disorders, personality disorders, and or suffering from bullying.
Now the eighth-leading cause of death overall in the U.S. and the third-leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years, suicide has become the subject of much recent focus. U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, for instance, recently announced his Call to Action to Prevent Suicide, 1999, an initiative intended to increase public awareness, promote intervention strategies, and enhance research. The media, too, has been paying very close attention to the subject of suicide, writing articles and books and running news stories. Suicide among our nation’s youth, a population very vulnerable to self-destructive emotions, has perhaps received the most discussion of late. Maybe this is because teenage suicide seems the most tragic—lives lost before they’ve even started. Yet, while all of this recent focus is good, it’s only the beginning. We cannot continue to lose so many lives unnecessarily.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds, and the sixth leading cause for 5 to 14 year olds. Suicide accounts for twelve percent of the mortality in the adolescent and young adult group. Young males are more common than young woman suicides. These are only children who followed through with the suicide. For every successful suicide there are fifty to one hundred adolescent suicide attempts. In other words, more than five percent of all teenagers tried to commit suicide, and the number is still rising. It is scary to think that four percent of high school students have made a suicide attempt within the previous twelve months. In a small safe town like Avon, in the Avon High School where you and I practically live, you can see the faces of 22 students that have tried to commit suicide. That is enough to fill a classroom.
Teen suicide is a huge problem for young teens because adults for not helping the teens in need. Teens are getting bullied and are not getting the attention they need so as a results our young teen kill themselves are they run away. Result from a current psychological autopsy study by d.shaffer and m.gould [1987] on consecutive adolescent suicide in the new york metropolitan area are presented. Family history data and diagnostic profiles of completed suicide are emphasize. The teen suicide rates is decreasing slowly since 1987 from ages 14-19 years of age for example alaskan teenager had a suicide rate of 31.6 per year 100,000 person per year.
Youth suicide is a public health concern. Suicide is the fifth leading cause of death among children ages 15-24. Recently, more young people died from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other medical conditions combined (Miller, Mazza, & Eckert, 2009). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that since the 1950s, the rate of suicide in youth has increased by more than 300 percent (Joe & Bryant, 2007). The number of youth suicides that are reported is actually lower than the actual number of youth suicides. Suggested by the literature, this is due to concern for the family, the social implications, religious views and other factors (Page, 1996). Is suicide preventable? Can we reduce the number of suicide attempts? What role should school professional’s play in the prevention of suicide? Although it is believed that if someone has the idea to commit suicide it will definitely happen, results indicate that the more school professionals that are educated about suicide, the signs and prevention, the more suicides that could be prevented. School professionals can and should be a key aspect in the prevention of youth suicide by knowing the warning signs and knowing how to intervene to prevent an attempt or successful suicide.
People who commit suicide tend to have the same feeling - that there is no other escape from their problems but to die (Rosin). Suicide, especially in a young person, can cause hopelessness within their community. Cluster suicides are uncommon, but teenagers are even more susceptible to rash decisions that cause permanent damage. After hearing of a classmate ending their life, suicide becomes an option that they may not have had before. These clusters can be devastating, and show the lasting effect of depression within groups of adolescents (Rosin). The younger the child is, the more likely that their symptoms will be ignored. Children are seen as unpredictable, and teens are expected to behave irrationally. Kids showing signs of depression are often pushed aside; no one wants to admit that their grade school aged kids could have a serious mental illness. Without proper treatment, these kids could grow up to have full fledged depression and anxiety. Children showing signs of restlessness, irritability, and insecurity are at risk, but these symptoms have to be carefully monitored. Some kids do not have depression, but rather a learning disability causing the same sort of frustration, and some have both (Paul). Not all adolescents with depression will have suicidal tendencies, and the younger they are, the less likely it is, Luckily, there is still much that can be done
Bullying is now a more spoken about phenomenon than it was in earlier days. It is also more common and practiced than it was way back when. Kids in their early teens, entering high school tend to experience a bit more bullying than usual. From pranks to name calling some teens can be really mean people – pushing the other to the far end. Teens who are bullied feel cornered and their self-esteem and confidence is beaten down to the bare minimum. They feel worthless and incapable of anything productive. This leads them to think and imagine that their life truly is worthless and therefore no longer feel the need to keep on living. They work into depressions and end up taking their own lives. Most teens are scared of further bullying and never bring up what’s happening to their teachers or parents and these things tend to go unnoticed for years on end. Mental disorders are a cause of teen suicide. teens can understand why they are feeling the way they do so they just kill themselves. Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other disorders cause the brain to function differently than usual and lead to thoughts that eventually result in suicide. A lot of teens with mental disorders don’t feel like they belong in society and consider themselves outcasts. That is just one of the many reasons that people with mental disorders commit suicide. Frustration with themselves and society and the trouble they have fitting in often lead them to take call it an end. Mental disorders need to be detected early on and treatment is required, but sometimes even that doesn’t work. It’s heartbreaking to watch. Sexual abuse is another cause of teen suicide. Teens that are victims of rape or other types of sexual abuse tend to become depressed and have thoughts of killing themselves. they think that since they have been raped or abused that no one will ever love them for who they really are so they kill themselves. There are lots of ways to
Suicide, whether an attempt or a completion is not something that should taken lightly. It is a life changing experience and never goes away. Suicide will affect all lives and needs to be dealt with. Suicide can be prevented, as long as everyone understands and helps those who appear to need it. Even for those who don’t appear to need it!