The Rate Of Adolescent Suicide

Suicide has been rising at alarming rates; the overall suicide rate for children and adolescents has increased over 300% since the 1950s. (Miller, 2009) Adolescent children are screaming out for our help, are we just ignoring the signs or do we not care? For young people, an average 1,800 take their own lives and 85,000 are hospitalized for attempts nationally (CDC, 2008). With this kind of statistics we need to step in and take some action.

Suicide has become the second leading cause of death among teens in the United States. American youth have more risk to mental disorders due to race, sexuality, family, and stress of fitting in with their surroundings. Many mental illnesses will lead to suicidal thoughts or eventually to an attempt at suicide. Anxiety and the pressure to fit in contributes greatly to depression and suicide, particularly in high school. During youth, it's especially hard to find who you are, and still have the risk of getting made fun of or being bullied. Mental disorders along with substance abuse can also increase suicidal tendencies commodiously.All of these factors lead to the most common mental disorder, depression. Depression in young adults is the most

Kutner, Max. "Teen Suicide Is Contagious, and the Problem May Be Worse Than We Thought;

Depression is a life threatening mental health disorder which is characterized by a persistent depressed mood or loss of interest in things you once enjoyed. In the United States alone there is about three million cases of depression per year and an estimate of 5,000 Americans between the ages 15 and 24 who take their own life due to this disorder. Since the last estimate the suicides have tripled from the year 1960 according to the Mental Health of America (Mental Health of America #1). Suicide has become the third leading cause of death in adolescents and the second cause of death among college-age youth. This disorder can make it very hard to live your normal everyday life. You can have overwhelming feeling of sadness, frustration and irritability. Some teens do

Teen suicide is increasing in America in teens age’s 14-17,young males,minorities;through the availability of guns,alcohol,drugs,and lack of support.

Teen suicides have been on the rise since the 1970’s, making it the second leading cause of death among the youth within the U.S. Suicide is the act of taking one’s own life, intentionally. All of my sources have great information and some sort of stance in spite of all of the chaos with this topic. These authors include Emma Brown, Dahr Jamail, Sonia Nazario, Ophelia D. Johnson, Sara-Ellen Amster, Ames Alexander, Michele Ingrassia & John McCormick, Ruth Padawer, Colleen Diskin, Joanne Fox, Gregg Zoroya, Kathleen Megan, and Michael E. Young. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S and their are many factors that play a role in the process leading up to a suicide, including bullying, traumatic experiences, and mental illnesses.

“Research shows that teen depression is on the rise and suicide is always a risk during the course of a major depressive episode.” (Katie Hurley, LCSW). Signs of depression/suicidal thoughts vary in reason because there are many reasons as to why teens have those thoughts. For example, a teen can be thinking of suicide because of the overwhelming feeling of stress, feeling of emptiness or loneliness. “About 45 percent of all suicides had symptoms of either depression or alcoholism” (Gale Group, 2018). Suicide can come from drug abuse but the thought of taking away a life could also come from depression. There are many known causes of depression such as family issues. This feeling can lead to taking their own life because they may feel like they don’t want to go through what they are going through and that they do not want to live any

The symptoms and statistics of teen suicide should get the attention of all parents. According to the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, over 38,000 people in the United States die by suicide every year. In 2010 (latest available data), there were 38,364 reported suicide deaths.

Adolescents that commit suicide are immediately presumed to have one or more mental illness such as depression or bipolar disorder and also assumed to have shown many signs that they were having thought suicidal thoughts, however in most cases

We all know the world has flaws, who doesn't? But these flaws can be easily be solved by a little compassion. Compassion is to be able to be there for someone in need, and to try to relieve the pain and sorrow that they might be feeling.

“Suicide, the deliberate taking of one’s own life.” Suicide does not only affect the individual itself, it especially affects those who survive their death, such as the individual’s parents, friends, peers and surrounding communities. When Carol Todd, mother of Amanda Todd who was a suicide victim, said “I have lost one child, but know she wanted her story to save 1,000 more,” she struck attention to the biggest issue in youth communities. The thought of a young individual passing away as a result of overwhelming hopelessness is devastating to everyone in a society. Society plays a huge role in suicide. Although most adolescents commit suicide due to depression, if their depression was not hereditary, most likely it would be caused by the society around them. Canadian statistics show that, “20% of kids cyberbullied think about suicide, and 1 in 10 attempt it,” and “approximately 4500 adolescents commit suicide each year.” Suicide is important in sociology because sociologist, Emile Durkheim studied it. He viewed that suicide is treated differently throughout various cultures and religions. He also discovered that suicide is less common in women than men. There are many aspects that tie into suicide, and as a society, everyone should give more attention to this sensitive topic as it may benefit themselves or their peers.

Suicide rates among youths aged 15-24 tripled over the past half-century suggesting a public health crisis in this community.4,16 Many general studies of the youth community are in existence, but to create an action plan, the individual risk factors and characteristics need to be better understood. One risk factor of particular interest is sexual orientation. Studies suggest an increased risk of suicidality in sexual minority youth (SMY) and the purpose of this paper is to better understand this correlation.8

Today’s teenagers are faced with the ever changing world around them and the biological changes of their bodies. Many teens are also faced with depression. Approximately half of teenagers with untreated depression may attempt suicide, which remains the third leading cause of death in this age group. (Bostic). This depression affects their school, family lives, and robs them of their self image. Depression affects many teens and often goes by unnoticed and untreated.

The DSM states “having five or more symptoms present during the same two week period and represent a change from precious functioning at least one of the symptoms is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure” (American Psychiatric Association:, 2013). Some other “behavioral patterns are running away from home, accident-proneness; aggressive acting out; temper tantrums; self-criticism; social withdrawal and loneliness; extreme sensitivity to criticism by others; low tolerance of frustration’ sleep problems; dark fantasies, daydreams or hallucinations; marked personality change; and overwhelming interest in death and suicide.” (Comer, 2014) This is why depression and suicidal behavior is harder to recognize and are not treated. “Depression can be difficult to diagnose in teens because adults may expect teens to act moody. In addition, adolescents do not always understand or express their feelings very well. They may not be aware of the symptoms of depression and may not seek help” ("DEPRESSION IN TEENS"). Therefore, when a teen is suffering from depression and feeling suicidal it is important to help them seek help by just asking them if they are feeling suicidal and then help them take the appropriate steps to find and receive help. “About 5 percent of children and adolescents in the general population suffer from depression at any given point in time” (Shaffer,

Youngster suicide is a noteworthy issue in our general public today. The youthful suicide rate has tripled since 1960, while being the biggest reason for death between the ages of 15 and 24. This is the one single age aggregate that has seen an expansion in suicides in the course of recent years. There are around 10,000 detailed suicides revealed every year. It is assessed in any case, that the genuine number of adolescent suicides is really three to four times that number when unreported passings are considered in. The young years are brimming with hardships for everybody. Youths are regularly constrained into adapting new social parts, growing new connections, getting used to the adjustments in your body, and settling on choices about their future. That can influence a man to feel very alone. Young people encounter solid sentiments, perplexity, self-question, strain to succeed, money related vulnerability, and different apprehensions while growing up. Young people submit suicide in light of the fact that there is excessively torment in their lives. While a few young people figure out how to adapt to the torment, others endeavor suicide.