Did you know that there are more deaths by suicide than homicide in the United States? There are ninety-four people that die everyday from suicide, and another one million people attempt suicide in the United States everyday (“Suicide in…”). In the 1980s and the 1990s, the amount of suicides were heading in the right direction--they were decreasing. “It had been decreasing steadily since 1986, and then what happened is there was a turnaround,” says Sally Curtin (Bichell). In order to prevent teenage suicide, individuals should be aware of the reasons why teenagers commit suicide as well as how to identify the warning signs, and they should understand the affects of suicide on others and how to cope with depression and stress.
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Suicide shatters survivors’ lives, their relationships, and the world around them. To begin with, survivors may be unwilling to accept that their friend’s death or family member's death was self-inflicted and may feel uncertain on how to accept help. In addition, the “What if?” question always comes up after a suicide attempt or death. This question is very extreme and very self-punishing on the survivor of a suicide. Furthermore, when survivors can not predict the death effectively or on time, survivors tend to overestimate the help they could have given. There is no doubt that loss through suicide is like no other; the grieving and suffering can be very complex and very traumatic (“Left behind…”). If teenagers know the heartbreak their suicide may cause, maybe that would be enough to keep them from taking their own …show more content…
First of all, people that tend to go through depression do not receive enough sleep or enough rest. The amount of sleep that a person that is going through depression should sleep eight hours every night. Also, people that go through depression do not really do anything much. Depressed people can better cope if they pick up a hobby or sport they like to do. Participating in a hobby or sport may help them stay connected with other people. Staying connected with people that make individuals happy and make that individual laugh and smile makes a big difference in battling with depression and an individual’s outlook. In other words, for someone who is going through depression, social support is a big factor in dealing with depression and stress (Smith). In particular, one way to prevent depression is to meet with a group of friends and talk about what is happening in life, good or bad, which may cause tears or laughter, but either way will help (Blumenstein 118). When all is said and done, it is never too late to start a new friendship or improving relationships with friends and family (Smith). In order to help teenagers through the depressing times, those around them need to make sure they receive enough rest, and are involved in a hobby, and help them stay connected with
The rate of suicide, the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally, increases each year. “More adolescents die each year from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined” (Preventing Teen Suicide, 2016, p.2). These facts show suicide is a serious problem among teens. Last year, teen suicide became the second leading cause of death in the United States confirming the significant increase in teen suicides.
“BREAKING NEWS: TEEN COMMITS SUICIDE” is not an unusual headline to read. Time and time again teens are making the choice to end their lives much like Richard Kirchoff’s son, Ryan Kirchoff, who took his life at the young age of 18. Kirchoff’s son was a normal kid who had many friends, a loving family, and dreamt that he would become a successful doctor, but all was taken away after he made the decision to take his life. Ryan had depression and refused to seek help from the people he trusted resulting in him ending his life. Now Kirchoff speaks out informing kids, teens, and adults about suicide and warns them about the causes and potential solutions (Cullota). Kirchoff states “Most people don’t like to say the S-word, which is part of the problem.” Suicide is the “third leading cause of death amongst young people between the ages of 15-24”, but it is not aggressively addressed (“Preface to ‘What Factors Contribute to Teen Suicide’?”). With adolescent suicide becoming a major concern for teens and adults involved, everyone needs to be educated on what leads to suicide and what actions should be taken to prevent it.
There is at least 113 suicides each day or 1 every 13 minutes. Suicide among males is the seventh leading cause of death and the fourteenth leading cause in females. Most suicides are with a firearm and are carried out with a “ Saturday night special”. (Dilaura,Cynthia DiLaura) “More than 90 percent of suicide attempts with a gun are fatal. “ (Brady Campaign) There are a number of reasons why suicide occurs. Stress is the number one cause among our youth, bullies, peer pressure, depression, and abuse. 41,100 people committed suicide in the United States in 2013. Our young teens today does not take time to look deeper into there problem and to seek out a better solution. They are looking for a quick fix but not realizing once the trigger is pulled the result is final with no turning back. Most people who has attempted suicide is more likely to try a second attempt and most have an underlying mental illness. There is many warming that someone may be in a suicide crisis. We most learn how to see things through their eyes. No matter what one is facing in life or the difficult that lie ahead of them Nothing is worth taken your own
"More people in the general population die from suicide than homicide in North America. There are almost 11 suicide deaths each year for every 100,000 people living in the United States, and for every suicide, there are between 8 and 25 attempts" (Brent 4203). Based on this research, the great effect of suicide is displayed. According to dictionary.com, suicide can be defined as "the intentional taking of one's own life." Suicide is a major issue for all people, but it most obviously affects those ranging from ten to twenty-four. People need to understand the tremendous ramifications caused from suicide everyday; when people take their lives, others lose their loved ones. Suicide, one of the leading causes of death of numerous people each day, has reached a crisis point for adolescents and young adults, and it needs to be prevented.
Every suicide effects more than the individual’s life, in truth it impacts families, communities and economic well-being of our nation. According, Piscopo, Lipari, Cooney, and Glasheen, (2016) “Suicide is an important public health problem in the United States and a tragedy for all involved—families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and communities. In 2014, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States overall.1 Among people aged 10 to 34, suicide was the second highest cause of death, and for those aged 35 to 54, it was the fourth highest cause of death” (p. 2).
In the United States, suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 10 to 14-year-olds (CDC, 2015) and for 15 to 19-year-olds (Friedman, 2008). In 2013, 17.0% of students grades 9 to 12 in the United States seriously thought about committing suicide; 13.6% made a suicide plan; 8.0% attempted suicide; and 2.7% attempted suicide in which required medical attention (CDC, 2015). These alarming statistics show that there is something wrong with the way suicide is handled in today’s society. In order to alleviate the devastating consequences of teenage suicide, it is important to get at the root of what causes it all: mental illness. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (2013), mental illness is the imbalance of thinking, state of mind, and mood. Approximately 90% of all suicides are committed by people with mental illnesses (NAMI, n.d.). This shows that there is a correlation between mental illness and suicide. If mental illnesses are not treated, deadly consequences could occur. It would make sense that if there is a correlation between mental illness and suicide across all ages, the same should be thought for adolescents. Approximately 21% of all teenagers have a treatable mental illness (Friedman, 2008), although 60% do not receive the help that they need (Horowitz, Ballard, & Pao, 2009). If mental illnesses are not found and treated in teenagers, some of them may pay the ultimate price.
As well as many factors there are also many preventions to stop teen suicide. Some of these factors are talking to a counselor, a guardian or parent, and many others. “Stephen Levine, author of Who Dies? and other books on death and dying, calls service the key to transforming suicidal thinking.” He thinks that a service that talks to people that have suicidal problems will help prevent people from committing suicide. “Levine says that many counselors add to teenager’s feelings of isolation by denying them.” He thinks that counselors just make teens who feel suicidal feel even worse. “ ‘I would have liked for someone to talk to me not about not doing it, but about why I wanted to do it – to acknowledge that the feelings were there and try to figure out why they were there’ says Tanya.“ “Heckler says ‘the number of suicides would be halved if people in
There is too much teen suicide in the United States. Many teens who are depressed have mental issues such as depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, etc. Often, teens who have these issues feel as if they don’t belong. They don’t feel like talking about certain things going on in their life. Issues regarding sexuality, bullying, and abuse make children feel hopeless and unwanted. They feel alone. The suicide rate has gone up dramatically. There are approximately 100,000 suicides per year and 10,000 to 20,000 of them being from ages 14 to 24. Suicide is also the 3rd leading cause of death for teens.
The risk of suicide upsurges dramatically when kids and teens have access to weapons at home, and nearly 60% of all suicides in the United States are committed with a gun. That's why any gun in your home should be unloaded, locked, and kept out of the reach of children and teens.
Teen suicide is something that is endless, it will never stop but if everyone was educated on it, it could help prevent deaths. I think with people provided with statistics and further information can help avoid adolescent suicide attempts. I think most teen suicide cases could be prevent if we knew the signs to look for and the ways to stop it. I believe parents would feel safer if they knew knowledge on the issue and how to handle it. The intended audiences for this essay is parents or friends of suicidal teens. This essay is important because, as mentioned earlier, we need to be educated on suicide to end tons of tragedies. It is also important to be aware of the warning signs to help prevent. This essay is relevant because teen suicide is a war that happens daily, and will continue to happen, until we take control of the situation and do something to stop it. If family members were informed of the cause and symptoms leading up to the attempt of suicide, then there is less likely that teenagers would try and commit
Did you know that there are more deaths by suicide than homicide in the United States? There are ninety-four people that die everyday from suicide, and another one million people attempt suicide in the United States everyday (“Suicide in…”). In the 1980s and the 1990s, the amount of suicides were decreasing, but from 1990s to today the amount of teenage suicide have been rising. “It had been decreasing steadily since 1986, and then what happened is there was a turnaround,” says Sally Curtin (Bichell). In order to prevent teenage suicide, individuals should be aware of the reasons why teenagers commit suicide as well as how to identify the warning signs, and they should understand the effects of suicide on others and
The Youth suicide prevention program put out statistics saying, 2001 in the US, 4,250 young people between the ages of ten and twenty four died by suicide, which is an average of one suicide roughly every two hours. They go on to say that one out of ten students indicated that they had made a suicide attempt in the past twelve months. One out of five indicated that they had seriously thought about it. Teen suicide is a bigger problem than people realize with rates of suicide tripling since 1970. It is an ongoing problem that seems to keep growing. Young people all across America choose to end their own lives, but could it be preventable? Brian Ahmedani studied suicide attempts across the United States stated that, sixty four percent of people
According to the World Health Organization, “Suicide has surpassed homicide to become the second leading cause of death among ten to twenty-nine-year-olds; in 2012, suicide claimed the lives of more than five-thousand people within this age bracket” (Onieal 14). Five-thousand young people felt that the weight of the problems they were faced with was too much to handle, and suicide was the only solution. As a teen who struggled with clinical depression and anxiety, this is an issue that is very real to me. So many of these suicides could have been prevented if we were more aware of how many teens are struggling with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses, and offered our support and strength to those who feel too weak to hold on any longer.
One of the major issues of the 21st century is suicide. The suicide rate has been increasing over the years rather than decreasing currently, “Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people15-29 years of age. Teen suicide statistics for youths 15-19 years of age indicate that from 1950-1990, the frequency of suicides increased by 300% and from 1990-2003, than that rate decreased by 35%.Over the past decade, however, the rate has again increased to 12.1 per 100,000. Every day, approximately 105 Americans die by suicide” (Suicide Fact 2003-2016). Suicide is not something easy that can be controled because although it is possible to see when a person has a problem it is hard to get the person to speak about the situation they are in.
Suicide has been a critical worldwide issue over the course of many years, and continues to be one of, if not the most heated topics till today. Suicide rates are at the highest they have ever been and is believed to be the second leading cause of death midst the youth. Often, we underestimate the number of outcome caused by suicide, not by accidents or tragic health issues but by their own two hands. It is the decision an individual makes to end their own life, followed by an act that will result in the demise of that individual’s being. Most people often don’t realize that it is not only their life that will directly be affected by this action, but also will leave a lifetime filled with pain and grief for their loved ones such as friends and family. Suicide is relentlessly affecting the youth population and if further steps are not taken to create prevention and to bring more attention on this topic, suicide will carry on to be one of the most impacting factors that will remain to put lives to an end.