Suicidal Behavior in Adolescents

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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 and are suffering from a painful mental treatable 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 adolescents pain go away permanently. Scientific evidence that shows the people who have committed suicide had a diagnosable treatable mental disorder or substance abuse disorder (The National Institute of Mental Health, 2010). Those people might have been suffering from illness such as depression, mood disorders, personality disorders and or suffering from bullying. Being a victim of bullying can be linked to suicidal thoughts as well as behavior in adolescents. Other causes might also include having family problems at home, problems at work, school and or with school peers. Suicide is a serious problem though it not only affects the victim, but it also affects family members, loved ones, along with friends.
Suicide in adolescents is the third-leading cause of death in the United States between the ages of 10 though 19 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2012, 292). More adolescents who think even about attempting suicide are mostly the ones who are unsuccessful at it. Females for example, are more likely than males to attempt to commit suicide by either over dosing on sleeping pills or self harming. Most adolescents’ girls will not succeed in actually committing suicide. Males on the other hand, use more drastic ways of committing suicide, adolescent boys usually with a firearm rather than another meth...

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...people perceive it be and can be very helpful to the adolescent by showing them that they are not alone in this battle no, but they have others fighting it as well. Meditation is also a helpful way to reduce stress and emotional reactivity. The final way to prevent bad thoughts to occur would be to exercise regularly to help improve the adolescent’s mood and take some frustration out.
In conclusion, suicidal behavior can affect not only the adolescent but their family as well.

Works Cited

Graber & Sontag (2009)

Gould et al. (2003)

Lauren. (2014, May 20). Rx for the Mind: 5 Ways to Heal the Hurt Inside [Blog post].

National Center for Health Statistics (2012)

National Institute of Mental Health. (2009). Suicide: A Major, Preventable Mental Health Problem.

Santrock, J. W. (2014). Essentials of Life-Span Development (3rd ed.). New York, NY:McGraw-Hill.

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