Substance Abuse And Teenage Suicide

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.

According to Fowler, Crosby, Parks, and Ivey (2013), suicide and nonfatal suicidal ideations are significant public health concerns for adolescents and young adults. While the onset of suicidal behaviors is observed as young as six years of age, rates of death and nonfatal injury resulting from suicidal behavior are moderately low until 15 years of age (Fowler et al., 2013). According to Fowler et al (2013), the most current available statistics in the United States (U. S.) reported suicide as the third leading cause of death among youth aged 10-14 and 15-19 years, and it was the second leading cause of death among persons aged 20-24 years.

The city of Plano, Texas, recently earned a spot at the top of Forbes‘s list of “safest places” to live in the United States. Its early efforts at chasing the top prize, however, were part of a cocktail of ignorance and poor judgment that had deadly consequences for Plano’s teenagers. Plano only earned its long-sought distinction after overcoming the fallout from highly publicized episodes of teen drug overdose and suicide in the 1980s and 90s. During the 1990s, scientists at the National Institute of Health detected a nationwide rise in heroin use (Biederman). The spike was seen not only in large, urban environments, where it was perhaps not unprecedented, but also in small towns and more affluent suburbs. Plano, an affluent, newer suburb twenty miles north of Dallas, was not immune. It witnessed heroin’s devastating impact firsthand in Plano’s children, particularly those in high school. Between 1996 and 1998, heroin overdoses were the cause of 18 deaths in Plano’s young residents. But because Plano was one of the richest cities in Texas and was still recovering from the cultural backlash of cluster suicides in the 1980s, its civic and business leaders and to some extent the police tried to obfuscate the city’s heroin problem rather than confront it directly. It paid a high price for these tactics, and it took Plano decades to rebound from the fallout.

Haelle’s article highlights the alarming rise of suicide among teens and in particular, the risk factors that cause it according to a study done by the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescence. Haelle’s main focus on the article discusses the common risk-factors associated with youth suicide and its rise to the second leading cause of death. More specifically, the report focuses in on the link of substance abuse in alcohol and drugs being the number 1 risk factor and can be identified with screenings for suicide risk. The

Studies show a vast number of risk and protective factors in adolescent suicide attempters (Joe, Baser, Breeden, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2006, Nock, 2009). The risk factor I chose to look at is substance use. Some researchers suggest a relationship between substance use and suicidality. (Garlow, Purselle, & Heninger, 2007, Schilling, Aseltine, Glanovsky, James & Jacobs, 2009). In the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, it was reported that Alcohol and Marijuana had the most

Through the exploration of this source, I will gain necessary information about data collection, documentation, and program evaluation of six health risk behaviors of adolescent youth. These risk behaviors may be directly correlated to indicators of suicidality, so I anticipate this source being a significant help to my

25 % of completed suicides occur by those who are drug abusers and those with alcohol abuse problems. More than 50 % of teens who commit suicide have a history of alcohol and drug use. People become impulsive and attempt to end their own lives. The remorse is usually genuine, and whether or not they’ll ever attempt suicide again is unpredictable. Substance abuse and the underlying reasons for it are a greater concern in these people and should be addressed.

Suicide is a devastating, preventable tragedy and is among the top causes of death in the adolescent population. Compelling statistics given since 2009 show the number of

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2015, suicide is the second leading cause of death in the adolescent population in this country and the number of occurrences continues to rise at a dramatic rate. For every teen that completes a suicide, 100 make an attempt, making suicide a paramount public health issue that needs to be addressed. Statistics show that since 2009, the rates of attempted and completed suicide, in this age group continue to steadily increase (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2015; Taliaferro, Oberstar, & Wagman-Borowsky, 2012).

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 10-24 year olds in the United States (Kim, Dickstein). Every year there are thousands of teens dying, not from cancer, getting shot, or car accident, but by their own hands. Teens make the choice of committing suicide. Researchers reported that the number of teen suicides are rapidly growing each year. Whether people realize it or not, this is a huge problem and people need to acknowledge this situation. This problem can be prevented, just like any other problem in our world. Last year, there was this guy who committed suicide days before his graduation, but no one knew the justification behind his actions nor seen the signs. Locals would say many reasons why he did it, but only he knew why he did it. There are many causes to someone wanting to commit suicide. According to his mother, he was somewhat depressed, but continue to say that there was nothing wrong with him. Depression is the leading cause of someone wanting to committing suicide. Based on my research, I have come to the conclusion that depression is the main cause of suicide and experts agree with

Each year, thousands of teens commit suicide in the United States. Suicide is a major problem as it is one of the leading causes of death among teenagers and young adults. Families and friends are heart-broken and greatly affected emotionally by the death of their loved one. It is unimaginable how hard it is for the parents and how they are going to cope with this most unfortunate tragedy. No parent ever imagine that this would happen to their child. Everyone, especially the parents, are often bewildered about the reason of their son/daughter for committing suicide. There are numerous possible reasons why teens commit suicide.

Suicide among adolescents, has been an increasing problem over the past several decades. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24, accounting for 20% of all suicidal deaths. Looking through a biopsychosocial lens, there are factors that we can see that contribute to the thoughts and attempts of suicide, these factors include stressful life events, such as academic problems, unintended pregnancy,

Suicide is the third leading cause of deaths in adolescents in the United States. Teen suicide is also often referred to as a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Teens so often are suicidal and attempt suicide as a call for help from others. They have no intention in dying they are just trying to cry out for help from anyone that will listen. Many reasons cause teen to attempt suicide, varying from bullying to psychological disorders. In fact, psychological disorders accounts for about 90% of teens who attempt or commit suicide. Teenagers are also at higher risk of suicide when they are under

Teen suicide is a major problem in our society today. The adolescent suicide rate has tripled since 1960, while being the largest cause of death between the ages of 15 and 24. This is the one single age group that has seen an increase in suicides over the past thirty years. There are about 10,000 reported suicides reported annually. It is estimated however, that the true number of teen suicides is actually three to four times that number when unreported deaths are factored in.

Young people who attempted suicide were also more often to have come from disadvantaged family backgrounds (broken homes). Such backgrounds indicate that parental role models were severely lacking or non existent. Alcohol and other drugs Alcohol and other drugs are frequently associated with suicidal behaviour. The increased risk associated with combining drug and alcohol abuse with mental health problems has already been noted, as has the association between attempted suicide and parental alcoholism.