Suicide is the intentional act of killing oneself. Typically individuals who commit suicide act out of despair. Common suicide triggers are mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and alcoholism and drug abuse. Personal issues such as financial problems or poor interpersonal relationships play a significant role in the cause of suicide (Gross, 2006).In the U.S suicide is the 6th cause of death. Suicide is also the leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults, more men commit suicide than women (Gelder et al, 2005).Leenar and Lester article mention important information about the general knowledge about suicide in college students. However relevant information is missing.
Euthanasia or The right to die is medically assisted suicide, in which people suffering from terminally ill conditions, extreme pain or have poor quality of life because of injury or illness, choose to die with the help of a medical professional. This is a very controversial issue in which ethical and legal matters are argued by opponents and supporters of euthanasia.
According to the New England Journal of medicine 53% of all completed suicide were gun suicide. In the U.S firearms are easy to find and this availability increase the risk of suicide in the U.S, because a high percentage of suicide are done in an act of impulsiveness, during a crises caused by an immediate stressor, such as a romantic breakup or the loss of a job. (Miller & Hemenway, 2008). There is evidence linking suicide with the domestic presence of a gun in the household. The risk is about 2 to 10 times larger than homes without guns, depending on the studied population and the way the firearms are stored. (Miller & Hemenway, 2...
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... reaction that sometimes suicidal people receive from health professionals, after communicating his/her feeling , such as the threat of institutionalization, increase dosages of medication and stigmatization, often causes that the suicidal individual keep his/her suicidal thought private.
Works Cited
Gelder et al. (2005). Psychiatry (p. 169). New York: Oxford.
Gross, B. (2006). Forensic Examiner. World Health Organization.
Hemenway, M. M. (2008). Guns and Suicide in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 989-991.
Shaffer, D. (1988). The epidemiology of teen suicide: An examination of Risk Factors. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 36-41. PMID 3047106.
Leenaars, A. A., & Lester, D. (1992). Facts and myths of suicide in Canada and the United States. Journal of Social Psychology, 132(6), 787. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Not all murders involve guns. According to data from the United States Department of Justice, in the year 2008, 5,340,000 violent crimes were committed in the United States. However, only eight percent, or 436,000 of these crimes were committed by criminals that were armed with any kind of firearm (Agresti). Even with laws that ban guns from being purchased, a killer could easily obtain a gun by stealing it. In 2010, there were approximately 300 million guns known to be owned by American citizens (Agresti). On the topic of suicide, if somebody has a strong intent on ending their life, and they cannot access a gun, they will find another way to accomplish the task, without using a gun (Lunger, 77). The presence of guns in the hands of the general public is a key element to prevent crime. Steve Agresti has ...
There are many things which can drive a teen to commit suicide some of them are as simple as making fun of the “fat” kid in class; others can come from the mental images from witnessing a shooting. There are four major issues which contribute to teen suicide such as depression, family problems, risk factors, and teens reactions to there climate. Depression, unfortunately, is one of the biggest factors of today’s teenage suicide problems and some of the reasons for it are from the student’s own peers, “being depressed is triggered by loss or rejection (Joan 59).” Depression can be f...
A mother finds her 17 year old teenage son hanging from the rafters of their basement. To hear of this occurrence is not rare in society today. Every 90 minutes a teenager in this country commits suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. The National suicide rate has increased 78% between 1952 and 1992. The rate for 15-19 year olds rose from two per 100,000 to 12.9, more than 600 percent. (Special report, Killing the Pain, Rae Coulli)
Suicide is the eleventh most common cause of death in the United States. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a person takes their own life once every fourteen minutes in the United States (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention [AFSP], 2011). Still, with suicide rates so high, suicide is a taboo topic in our society. Though suicide is intended to end one person’s pain, it causes an immeasurable amount of pain and suffering to loved ones close to the deceased.
Suicide and handguns: “….the ready availability of handguns in the moments of despair takes thousands of lives each year.” (page 35 Every handgun is aimed at you) The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention states that: “Firearms account for 50 percent of all suicides. Death by firearms is the fastest growing method of suicide.” Just as the murder-minded individual h...
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for high school students after accidents and homicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC 2010). There are many factors that contribute to teenagers wishing to end their lives. Stress, confusion, family issues, academic pressure, and hormones are just a few to name. Most of the risk factors that should be given the most attention to, are the ones that are overlooked. However, there are some things that cause suicide that are not noticed until it is too late. The factors that are overlooked and the ones that are sometimes undetectable will be analyzed.
Gould PhD, MPH, Madelyn, and Rachel Kramer ScD. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. Issue Supplement s1. 31. The American Association for Suicidology, 2001. 6-31. Print.
The public has heard many arguments that guns at home are much more likely to cause accidental injury and suicide than to defend against unknown intruders. Tragic cases deaths among juveniles as the result of shootings support this opinion, along with the incidents of adults
The lowest suicide rates are observed among Asians and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, and Hispanics (AFSP, 2015, Callanan & Davis, 2012; Liu et al., 2015). More than three-quarters of individuals who completed firearm suicide are non-Hispanic Whites (Kposowa, 2013; Streib et al., 2007), followed by African American/Black (11.3%), Hispanic (4%), Asian/Pacific Islander (1.6%), and Native American (0.04%) (Kposowa, 2013). Interestingly, using the mortality detail file of the United States Public Health Service from 1990, Stack and Wasserman (2005) conclude that firearm suicide is the dominant mode of suicide method for both Whites and African Americans. They report that African Americans are twice as likely as Whites to choose violent methods of suicide. They confer that even though African Americans are less likely to own firearms, they are predisposed toward violence behaviors. Not only that African Americans may experience greater economic and social stress, they are more likely than Whites to have been shot at or exposed to homicidal violence. The exposure to the high incidence of violence may cause them to be more desensitized to violence methods and more likely to externalize
With the renewed debate over gun control and safety of the public is a growing topic among current events. With the complexity of the events occurring, the role of psychology and gun control should be addressed and discussed throughout scholars and others to address the urgency of this topic. Gun control and gun safety is complex multifaceted problem that is plaguing the citizens nationwide with the growing concern of the use of guns during homicides, suicide, or mass shootings. In this debate, the consideration of the U.S. Constitution’s second amendment, the causes of the violence occurring with guns, and the psychological profiles of the individuals causing harm onto others. In some ways, this debate could
Nevertheless, individuals still think that guns make homes safer. On the contrary, over 60 percent of gun related deaths were suicides in the year 2015 (Bauchner et al. 2017). Where the use of guns is 90% more effective for a suicidal attempt. While the use of pills and wrist cutting remains 90% less successful for attempt of suicide (Owens et
The authors addressed the problem with the availability of handgun and suicide, although homicides are more often talked about, gun-related suicide counts for 2/3 of all gun violence. They analyzed a wide range of data from multiple credible sources such as Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project and The National Inpatient Sample. After cross referencing and analyzing different data, they found that there are around 90 firearm-related deaths per day, among them 63% are suicide. They found that although there are data available, there is not enough to determine which exact law affect the rate of suicide the most. The authors concluded that the overall easy accessibility to handguns increase the amount of suicide.
to 24 year of age. Trends in rates of suicides for teens 15 to 19 years old
Dokoupil, Tony. A. The "Suicide Epidemic" Newsweek Global 161.19 (2013): 1 Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web.
Now the eighth-leading cause of death overall in the U.S. and the third-leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years, suicide has become the subject of much recent focus. U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, for instance, recently announced his Call to Action to Prevent Suicide, 1999, an initiative intended to increase public awareness, promote intervention strategies, and enhance research. The media, too, has been paying very close attention to the subject of suicide, writing articles and books and running news stories. Suicide among our nation’s youth, a population very vulnerable to self-destructive emotions, has perhaps received the most discussion of late. Maybe this is because teenage suicide seems the most tragic—lives lost before they’ve even started. Yet, while all of this recent focus is good, it’s only the beginning. We cannot continue to lose so many lives unnecessarily.