Suicide On Campus And The Pressure Of Perfection

Did you know suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents? The amount of teenagers attempting suicide increases each year, intriguing scientists todetermine why. Times have changed since the mid-1900s’s: classes demand more, competition between peers has grown intense and parents strive for their kids to be the best. In the twenty-first century, good just isn’t good enough; adolescents strive for perfection and when they fail, it can lead to them falling into depression or attempting suicide. When a person is depressed, striving for perfection and missing their goals are possible factors of the disease, which is further influenced by parental and societal pressure. Parents indirectly and directly push their kids to be better than their peers in school, sports and extracurricular activities. In Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection, the author reports some of Ms. Alice Miller’s

They soon will find themselves surrounded by symptoms of depression from the pressure they feel and especially if they fail at the attempt of perfection. As society puts pressure on individuals to compete to be the best, individuals are not only influenced to be perfect by their parents, but also by their peers. Society puts this burden on each other and frowns upon mistakes, which damages one’s self confidence. Etienne Benson explains this concept in her article The Many Faces of Perfection:

For some varieties of perfectionism, the link is clear. Socially prescribed perfectionism- believing that others will value you only if you are perfect- has been associated with depression and other problems including suicide. ‘I think the reason for that is that socially prescribed perfectionism has an element of pressure combined with a sense of hopelessness’ explains Flett. Socially prescribed perfectionists, he notes, tend to feel that ‘the better I do, the better I’m expected to do’.