Essay Teenage Suicide

Suicide is a prevalent cause of death among America's youth today. Every day more than 1000 teenagers will think about suicide and eighteen will be successful in committing it. It is an ever-growing problem that can be described as unnecessary and uncalled for. Knowledge and understanding are key factors to preventing teenage suicide. The problem will usually originate from a period of depression, either as a medical concern, or simply because of a saddened

When dealing with depression people like to find something that alters reality. These people will turn to drugs and alcohol and in doing this, these people will sometimes end up abusing these things and becoming addicted. Once a person comes back from their intoxication they are usually in a worse condition than when they took the drug. This leads the person down a pretty bad path that can ultimately lead them to taking their own life.

(Kirmayer et al., 2007, p. 38) Not only do alcohol and CNS depressants affect a person’s behavior and mood it can also indicate pre-existing psychological factors and social problems that are related to suicidal behavior. (Kirmayer et al., 2007, p. 38)

Teens who experienced traumatic events in their childhood are more likely to commit suicide. According to The Mayo Clinic ( 2017), studies show that teens who are victims of divorce, rape, or abuse are at a higher risk of attempting suicide. However, teens with mental health issues are most likely to commit suicide. Depression is the leading cause in health issues among teens. Deriving from home life, alcohol and drug use, friendships, school, and other attributes.

While all the above are driving factors of teen suicide, often the underlying concern is mental illness. Some teens who seek suicide initiate because of depression, borderline personality disorder or bipolar disorder. These illness intensify the pain a teen may suffer. Because of these underling illnesses, teens should seek and treat by medical professional.

Unfortunately, health practitioners have not drawn a consensus about the reasons behind the spike in suicides. However, one hypothesis, as sources point out is "earlier puberty."

While this writer had some rudimentary knowledge of the impact serotonin had on the brain, "Why? The Neuroscience of Suicide" by Carol Ezzell piqued my curiosity on the role levels of serotonin and the process by which it is absorbed in the brain affect suicidal patients. This article was recently posted on the Neurology and Behavior website as supplemental reading for neurology and behavior's spring semester 2003 class. In this article the writer Carol Ezzell weaves her own personal experience with informative reporting of groundbreaking neuroscience research on suicide. Through further research I discovered various articles on a group of scientists from Columbia

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).

Many clinical studies have been used to suggest a role for serotonin in the propensity for depression or suicidal tendencies. Most of these studies measured the level of serotonin in the CSF in certain individuals. Results established a link between reduced serotonin neurotransmission and aggression, impulsivity, depression, and suicidal tendencies. Other data, using markers in presynaptic and postsynaptic serotonergic neurons have shown that reduction in serotonin neurotransmission is a biochemical "risk factor" for suicide (1).

Numerous psychological autopsy studies have shown that approximately 90% of youth who die by suicide experience at least one mental disorder (Gould et al., 2003). The Utah Youth Suicide Study results (2005) indicated that mood disorders and substance use disorders are the most common diagnoses of youth who have died by suicide (Moskos et al., 2005). Further, results of a psychological autopsy study conducted by Brent et al. (1993) indicated that major depression, bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and conduct disorder are the most significant psychiatric risk factors in adolescents who die by suicide. In addition, both mood and anxiety disorders with childhood onset have been shown to increase the likelihood of multiple nonlethal attempts in young adulthood (Rudd, Joiner, & Rumzek, 2004). Personality disorders have also been found to increase the risk of lethal suicide attempts in adolescents (Brent et al., 1993).

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.

Someone, somewhere, commits suicide every 18 minutes. You might never be able to tell who it will be, it could be the person sitting right next . Statistics reveal that approximately three million youths, between 12-18, have either thought about or attempted suicide in the past year. More than 1/3, actually succeeded.

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.

So first, let me tell you some of the possible causes for teens being suicidal. There are plenty of other reasons a teen might feel suicidal but these are some that I could think of. So because of where we live, and drugs being a growing problem here, I thought I’d focus a little on the living environment, focus also on another environment that the teen might encounter, and lastly on the mental health perspective.