Teenage Suicide : A Challenging Period Of Life

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.

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.

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).

“For youth between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death, approximately 4600 lives lost each year. Of the reported suicides in the 10 to 24 age group, 81% of the deaths were males and 19% were females. The top three methods used in suicides of young people include firearm (45%), suffocation (40%), and poisoning (8%)” (CDC, 2015). The school is not an easy step to take, and a lot of students suffer from anxiety attacks caused by stress and depression. Sadly, these students usually don’t seek help or maybe they just simply don’t know where to go for the help. “The costs of suicidal behaviors and the savings that can result from preventing these behaviors can help convince policymakers and other stakeholders that suicide prevention is an investment that will save dollars as well as lives” (SPRC, 2015).

Price, Tom. "Social Media and Politics." CQ Researcher 12 Oct. 2012: 865-88. Web. 8 Sept. 2014.

(372) In adolescent’s fatal illness are so uncommon that suicide is the third leading cause of death. About half of teenage suicides have been tied to clinical depression, low self-esteem, and feelings of hopelessness. Teenagers who have tried to kill themselves seem to also struggle with anger and impulsiveness and have deficiencies with their ability to sort out and solve problems; they may also have alcohol or drug problems (Comer, 2013, pp. 303). With this in mind some of the factors that make adolescent predominantly at risk for suicide are: societal factors, weakening family ties, easy access and pressure to use drugs and alcohol, and not to mention the detailed descriptions of suicide that the media has shown(Comer, 2013, pp. 304). Adolescent is a time of growth and self discovery so, it’s no wonder teenagers who attempt or consider suicide are under a great deal of stress. Teenagers seem to react more sensitively, angrily, dramatically, or impulsively which may be why suicidal acts in times of stress seem to be increasing. I’m not saying all teenagers have tried to commit suicide, but the ones that have either accomplished the deed or attempt to. The ones that attempt to seem to have higher

Each day, 95 people in the United States die by suicide. No one is immune to this tragic act regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, geographic location, and socioeconomic status. Suicide is especially prevalent in the adolescent and young adult populations, and is the third leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 24 (Borges et al., 2010). Within the group of 10- to 14 year-olds, most deaths by suicide occur in children and adolescents ages 12-14, with the rate of suicide deaths increasing dramatically in the late teen years. The rate of suicidal behavior continues to increase until the early twenties, at which points it drops off until late

Teen suicide is one of the largest problems facing America at the moment, and it will only become worse if the country does not come up with a solution. “According to the American Psychiatric Association, suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people between eleven and eighteen years of age (Teen Suicide).” American families can not keep losing sons and daughters to this entirely preventable epidemic. The largest issue with teen suicide is that Americans are using largely outdated and/or ineffective strategies in dealing with teen suicide, and Americans need to realize that this problem will not just go away. Using the old methods, such as telling teens to toughen up, are clearly not working and in some cases are contributing to the problem. Teen suicide is alarmingly on the rise and “According to the CDC, 5,504 people ages 10 to 24 died by suicide in 2014, the most recent year in which statistics are available. The figure was up from the grim 2013 tally of 5,264, and the number has risen every year and up 13 percent from 2010 (Corbin).” There are several causes for teen suicide that range from depression to concussions, and for each cause there are several proposed solutions to suicide or its causes, but many of the solutions will cause more problems instead of solving current ones, Americans need to utilize effective suicide prevention strategies and ignore the useless and outdated ones.

Suicide is reaching epidemic proportions all across the globe. What is causing such an outbreak in young adults? Most people have heard about the get help hotlines and the advertisements associated with suicide. Although we 've all heard about it, not much is being done about it. Johnson states the facts about suicide, “claiming 39,518 lives in 2011, or more than 6,889 more than in 2005” (10). This small piece of information goes to show just how much suicide has increased in the last few years. Besides being the number 10 cause of death among all ages in the U.S., it is the 2nd leading killer of adolescents, or “people between ages 15 and 19” (Peacock 1). Also, the number of completed suicides only touches the surface on the dilemma it truly is; this is because there are 25 suicide attempts per every suicide (731). What goes unnoticed is that suicide is on the rise for a number of reasons including mental illness, bullying, social media, and high expectation perfectionist teens.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people in the United States. Each year 20% of adolescents think of committing suicide, and between 5% and 8% attempt suicide. (J. McWhirter, B. McWhirter , E. McWhirter, R. McWhirter, 2007.p.255). Therefore, it is important to have programs that prevent adolescent suicidal behavior. (McWhirter, 2007. p.256). In recent years, nearly 5,000 persons’ death certificates showed that they were at the ages between 15 and 24. Suicide attempts affect more girls than boys, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (McWhirter, et al., 2007.p.256). Additionally, in 2006, “11.5% of girls and nearly 5.5% of boys” try to commit suicide in the previous 12 months (McWhirter et al., 2007. p. 256). This number grows dramatically among distressed adolescents and even more dramatically for juvenile offenders (McWhirter et al., 2007. p. 256). Every year, nearly 150,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 24 are treated for self-inflicted injuries (McWhirter et al., 2007. p.256). In every secondary school classroom, it is common that

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

Suicide is a very difficult topic to discuss, especially for those that have either attempted to end their life or for the families of those that ended their life. However, it is a topic that continues to cause headlines and tragedy as suicide attempts have been more and more common but studies have shown a decline in teen suicide (Kolves, & De Leon, 2015). According to Quinan Davidson et al (2013) an average of 220, 000 people between the ages of 10 and 24 commit suicide. Suicide is considered to be a death by a self-injurious behavior in which the intent is to die (CDC.gov, 2015).

“Each year in the U.S., thousands of teenagers commit suicide” and thousands more consider doing it (Otsuki-Peterson-Kim). Younger children typically the ages 10-14 do not attempt suicide. However, children in their late teens and possibly early twenties are more likely to do so. Overall, suicide has always been a concern, but recently the rate has