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) A 17 year old boy, Douglas Stewart, came home from school to find his mother lying on the sofa with a strained back. Being concerned for her he rubbed her back briefly then put on some easy listening music. Douglas then proceeded downstairs to his bedroom. Two of his friends came to the door. His mother waited to see if he would return to answer it; minutes later she answered and then yelled for him to come up. When he did not come, she went downstairs to get him. That is when she found him strangled and her son’s body dangling from the ceiling. This is a senseless tragic sight for a mother to endure. The mortality rate from suicide in 1996 showed 9.5 per 100,000 for 15-19 year olds. This also shows boys are four times more likely to commit suicide then girls. However, girls are twice as likely to attempt suicide. (American 1996) It is imperative to reverse this trend and in doing so we need to understand the characteristics, behaviors and events associated with youth suicide. There are many risk factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempts. Risk factors include self-destructive behavior which may be related to life events, unfavourable home environments, or a genetic component. Personality traits like aggression and hostility or feeling introverted or hopeless play a role in suicides. Loss of control, poor problem solving techniques, or rigid cognitive life styles are also characteristics of suicides. Similar traits are found in depressive behaviors. Teenagers may have been exposed to others who have had suicidal behaviors. Douglas Stewart, the 17 year old boy had previously rehearsed his hanging. Medical people had been summoned to his house two months before because he had tried to hang himself with a dogs choke chain using the stairway banister. In the same area in Calgary between June and ... ... middle of paper ... ... but in reality they are trying to react to a devastating blow. They need to be reminded that people are hurt for them but do not know what to say or how to say it. Silence does not mean they are blaming or thinking badly of them. Survivors need to release their feelings and resolve their questions. Reading literature on suicide and grief is recommanded. This may offer understanding and suggestions for coping. They may need to seek out a competent counsellor. It is important to take care of oneself in order to help take care of the rest of the family. Alcohol and prescription drugs do not end the pain but merely mask it. These could lead to further withdrawal, loneliness and addiction. There are several hot lines for support groups and suicide prevention. Sometimes it is helpful to contact other survivors of a suicide. Community education is the key to prevention. Suicide prevention services are effective because the person doesn’t necessarily want to die he just wants to stop living like this, to stop the suffering. “I find myself deep in a hole of sorrow, To far to bother, Too far to try, Too far to get out. So I tink I’ll just wait here and die. -Douglas Stewart 1978-1995
In 2012, there were an alarming number of suicides among young people in Kent and Sussex counties in Delaware (Fowler, Crosby, Parks, & Ivey, 2013). According to a collaborative investigative report that was done by the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP), National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were eleven suicides committed by young people who ranged in ages from 12 to 21 years old within a five month period of time in Kent and Sussex counties in Delaware (Fowler et al., 2013). In that same five month period of time there were 116 youth who attempted to commit suicide (Fowler et al., 2013). These incidents drew a great deal of community alarm for two primary reasons. The first reason was the number of suicide deaths in the first quarter of 2012 exceeded the number of suicide deaths typically reported in this two county area in an entire year (Fowler et al., 2013). According to Fowler et al. (2013), from 2009-2011, the typical annual number of deaths by suicide among young peop...
The main argument in this article is that there needs to be more ways to help people that are suicidal. The main point of this article is that they want to people to be more aware of how to help someone, and it is also full of information. The topics that are covered in the article are the issues at hand, the background with suicide in teens, and the next step that society needs to take. This article is about helping people that are suicidal and how to help them and let us know the next step that we need to take.
Her eyes were heavy, her body weak. As she crawled into the bathroom two feet away, Abby felt her body slowly succumbing to the numbness. All of her pain would be gone in less than 10 minutes, so why would she want to turn back? What about the senior trip Abby had planned with her best friend? What about the chair at the dinner table that would now be vacant? A couple of hours later Abby’s family came home from her little sister’s soccer game. Little did they know what they would find as they approached the top of the stairs. Her little sister, Ali, stood still as she looked down at her feet. There on the cold floor lay her big sister, her role model, and her super hero. Ali was crushed when she saw the pill bottle in her hand and the pale color of her skin. Her mom fell to her knees screaming and crying, wondering where she
The idea of youth committing suicide mystifies our societal logic. We do not understand the reasons why youth -normally associated with energy, determination and possibilities- turn to such a final act as a solution. Suicide eventually enters all of our lives, either directly or indirectly. However, the situation becomes more cruel and unfair when a youth commits suicide. We can not help but think of the opportunities and potential lost so swiftly for one so young. Although adolescent suicide is a current crisis in today’s Canadian society, youth for all of history and in all cultures have resorted to this ultimate form of self-destruction. Clearly we have and always have had, a teenage dilemma needing desperate attention. Canada is currently in a youth suicide crisis situation. Our suicide rates are above that of the United States as well as other auspicious countries. For example, in young men aged fifteen to nineteen, the rate of suicide “is 60 percent higher than in the United States.”1 UNICEF has declared that adolescent suicide is Canada’s major tragedy. Our youth are unable to cope and unable to successfully find the kind of help they need to help themselves. The results are tragic and unnecessary.
Joseph Connelly Gazzola used to be a Northeastern University football star. He has since taken his own life, and it has hit everyone he knew very hard.
This is compounded by the fact that, like many other human behaviors, teenage suicidal behavior is an extremely complex issue that cannot be understood outside of a multidimensional framework. To understand why some teens choose to take their own life, we must take into account individual, familial, social, economic and cultural circumstances (Furi & Guimont, 2003). Thanks to recent research, certain factors have been identified that may help identify and provide support to teens who need it most. Canada’s parliamentary research branch for political and social affairs recently identified three categories of risk factors that have been found to contribute to teen suicide: predisposing factors, precipitating factors, and contributing factors (Furi & Guimont,
The rates of suicide when focusing on gender differ from region to region, providing conflicting information on whether males or females are more at risk for suicide. Of teenagers aged 15-19 in ______, 9 out of 100,000 kids successfully committed suicide from 2005-2010 (Suicide Attempts)*. LGBT or other sexual minority children and teenagers also are at risk for committing suicide. Approximately 1 in 3 youths that consider themselves part of a sexual minority reported attempting suicide, compared to 1 in 12 heterosexual youths (Intersecting Identities)*. Warning signs of suicide include depression and withdrawal, risky or harmful activities, showing an interest in death or “making comments that things would be better without them” (Teen Bullying & Suicide)*.
Approximately, five teenagers attempted suicide each day (Haesler 2010 para. 1). The fact makes some group of people (especially the ones who are part of the society) concerned. Somehow, youth suicide will result in an unintentional sign for help (Carr-Gregg 2003, para. 1). Communities related to the victims will be affected mentally and they will feel grief, pain, and loss that are so great that it overcomes the economic ...
There are many factors that contribute towards suicide like: parental substance abuse, divorce, overprotective or perfectionist parents, abuse, and rejection. In addition to depression, specific motivations surrounding childhood suicide still puzzle experts. A suicidal child tends to be hypersensitive, depressed, anxious, and angry. Usual motivations generally couple with a specific triggers revolving around the child's perception that he or she received undue punishment over a particular event.
There are three main types of sociological perspectives in which you can perceive different sociological issues and concepts; structural-functional, symbolic-interaction, and social conflict. Structural-functional looks at society as a whole and how it works together. Symbolic-interaction is how different symbols spark particular thoughts and emotions by examining the meanings that people impose on objects, events and behaviors. Social conflict studies how power and coercion affect social order. Based off these types of perspectives, an analysis on teen depression and suicide can be evaluated from a sociological standpoint.
In 2001, the mother of a girl, known as MissT. a fifteen-year-old high schooler, found her daughter almost dead, surrounded by her own vomit in her room. MissT.’s suicide note was found on her bedside table where explained that she had taken more than 200 over the counter and prescription medication pills in an attempt of suicide. As she received treatment at a psychiatric unit, MissT. explained how she had been struggling with depression for about a year. Her mother had no idea (Lukonis 302). Annually, over five thousand teens commit suicide in the United States (Anderson 3). The lives of teenagers are hard enough as it is, with their bodies and minds growing, the pressure from social media to be perfect, and
“Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain” (I-10). Ending a life is a big step in the wrong direction for most. Suicide is the killing of oneself. Suicide happens every day, and everyday a family’s life is changed. Something needs to be done to raise awareness of that startling fact. Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly.
Teen suicide as an extremely complex tragedy, that unfortunately happens all the time throughout the United States. There are friends, parents, and peers that are facing the misfortune of losing a young, close, loved one to suicide. Most people don't realize that adolescent suicide is common. They don't want to believe how often this occurs in the secure environment found in the small towns of America, as well as in its largest cities.
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.
Teenage years are the hardest times. Your having changes in your body, going through relationships, and trying to plan your future. When you go to look for answers, it seems like no one has them. That's what starts teenagers to feel alone. When they feel this way they will try to "medicate" themselves by drugs and alcohol or violence. Studies show that teens who feel this way are at high risk for suicide. Suicide, intentional, self-inflicted death. A uniquely human act, suicide occurs in all cultures. People who attempt or complete suicide usually suffer from extreme emotional pain and distress and feel unable to cope with their problems. They are likely to suffer from mental illness, particularly severe depression, and to feel hopeless about the future. Suicide is becoming a public-health problem. It is now the leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers believe mental illness in young people are the cause of the increase in suicide. Not only do suicides rates differ between age groups but also men and women. Men succeed in more suicides but more women attempt. Methods of suicide can differ from drug overdose to hanging. Poisoning or overdose is the least amount of suicide rates. Hanging is the leading method worldwide. The United States has 60 percent suicides committed by guns. Where it is less easy to get a gun in Canada there is only 30 percent committed suicides. Only 15 to 25 percent of those who kill themselves leave suicide notes. People often think suicide is caused by difficult situations such as failure in school or marriage. Experts believe those are just triggers and its really caused by the brain, genetics or social forces. The majority of people who kill themselves are suffering from depression. Researchers believe that genetics play a role in suicidal behavior. They believe it runs in the family. There are also some psychological theories. "Suicides have three interrelated and unconscious dimensions: revenge/hate, depression/hopelessness, and guilt." said Karl Menninger. Many suicide attempts are a cry for help and to try to get attention. Soem socialogical theories show suicidal people don't know how to cope with stress well. They are also probably suffering from a loss of a family member. There are ways to help prevent suicide. If recongized early you can get psychiatric help and get on medication. Some risk factors can be people with mental illnesses, or substance-abuse disorders.