Suicide, it's not pretty. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's the
'Process' of ending ones life. Suicide is sometime seen as understandable or
even honorable in certain circumstances. Such as in protests (hunger strike),
as part of battle or resistance (suicide pilots(WWII), suicide bombers) or as a
way of preserving the honor of a 'dishonored' person (killing yourself to
save someone else). Nearly one million people world wide commit suicide
each year, with anywhere from 10 to 20 million suicide attempts annually.
Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in males and the 16th leading
cause of death in females. It is the third leading cause of death for people 10
to 24 year of age. Trends in rates of suicides for teens 15 to 19 years old
show that from 1950 to 1990 the frequency of suicides went up by 300%.
From 1990 to 2003, that rate went down 35%. Self-mutilation is one of the
most common methods of committing suicide. Self-mutilation means to
deliberately hurt yourself without meaning to kill someone else. Examples
of self-mutilation are: cutting any part of the body (usually the wrists), self-
burning, head-banging, pinching, and scratching.
The effects of suicide on friends and family are often devastating.
Individuals who lose a loved one from suicide are more at risk for becoming
pre-occupied with the reason for it. Wanting to deny or hide the cause of
death, wondering if they could have prevented it, feeling blamed for the
problems that preceded the suicide, feeling rejected by their loved one, and
stigmatized by others really makes friends and family feel like they?re not
wanted. Survivors of suicide may feel a great range of conflicting emotions
about the deceased, feeling everything from intense sadness about the loss,
and helpless to prevent it.
Every suicide has it?s reasons, but a lot of them aren?t so legitimate. An
example of a possible trigger for suicide is a real or imagined loss, like the
breakup of a romantic relationship, moving, loss of a friend, loss of freedom,
or loss of other privileges. Older people are more likely to kill themselves
using a firearm compared to younger people. Some people commit suicide
by threatening police officers, sometimes even with an unloaded gun or a
fake weapon. That is commonly referred to as ?Suicide by cop.? Although
firearms are the most common way people complete suicide, trying to
Normal reactions to pain of loss, rejection, or disappointment and some which are more extreme reactions that can lead them in minor hopelessness, is teen suicide. When a teen commits suicide, everyone is affected. Family members, friends, teammates, neighbors, and sometimes even those who didn’t know the teen well enough might experience feelings of grief, confusion, guilt, and the sense that if only they had done something differently, the suicide could have been prevented.
JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Regional variations in suicide rates - United States, 1990-1994. (From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Sep 24, 1997, v278 n12.
Mortenson, Tom . "Suicide Among 15 to 24 Year Olds by Gender 1940 to 1998." Postsecondary Education OPPORTUNITY Number 132Jun 2003 01 April 2007. http://www.postsecondary.org/archives/previous/117302SUICIDE.pdf.
Wong, S., Zhou, B., Goebert, D., & Hishinuma, E. (2013). The risk of adolescent suicide
In a study released by Brown University, their psychology department shed some light on common myths and facts surrounded suicide. These m...
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)
depressed, the option of suicide becomes the only option, the only way to control life and end the
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.
All the triggers and signs listed on the website are accurate and are a wealth of knowledge if the person with suicidal tendencies enlightens to share these triggers and signs with friends and loved ones. Not even one of these triggers or signs surprises me. Why? You ask because, for a year and a half, I have searched for a trigger or sign that I missed in a dear friend and client of 26 years, who took his life.
Assisted suicide is a form of suicide offered by physicians in certain states that have legalized it. It usually comes in a pill form. The only way you can receive this pill is from a doctor and only if you are eligible for it. This usually means you have a terminal illness or something of that nature. Assisted suicide is meant to be a last resort option all other avenues should be considered first. Assisted suicide is the act of ending ones life for a specific reason approved by a doctor.
90% of suicide victims suffer from depression. A teen going through depression may seem hopeless, have a lack of sleep or appetite, and interested. Helping depressed teens coop with their illness is also important in preventing suicide. Drug or alcohol use also are associated with suicide. Teens who partake in drug or alcohol use have a likelihood to continue destructive behavior by attempting suicide. If a teen witnessed suicide from another family member, they are three times more likely to commit suicide themselves. By seeing suicide being modeled as an acceptable coping mechanism, they contemplate suicide more seriously. Adolescents that undergo any type of stressful events in their life, have a higher chance of committing suicide because they do not understand how to cope with
“Facts and Figures: State Statistics.” afsp.org. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, n.d. 25 November 2011.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds, and the sixth leading cause for 5 to 14 year olds. Suicide accounts for twelve percent of the mortality in the adolescent and young adult group. Young males are more common than young woman suicides. These are only children who followed through with the suicide. For every successful suicide there are fifty to one hundred adolescent suicide attempts. In other words, more than five percent of all teenagers tried to commit suicide, and the number is still rising. It is scary to think that four percent of high school students have made a suicide attempt within the previous twelve months. In a small safe town like Avon, in the Avon High School where you and I practically live, you can see the faces of 22 students that have tried to commit suicide. That is enough to fill a classroom.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, scientific evidence has shown that almost all people who take their own lives have a diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorder, and the majority have more than one disorder. In other words, the feelings that often lead to suicide are highly treatable. That’s why it is imperative that we better understand the symptoms of the disorders and the behaviors that often accompany thoughts of suicide. With more knowledge, we can often prevent the devastation of losing a loved one.
Often times when I heard the word "suicidal" I was curiously caused the person to do it. Growing up, I heard that people decided to commit suicide was because they "wanted attention, they wanted the easy way out, they were weak, they couldn't handle life, etc." Personally, I have significant people in my life that have felt like they wanted to commit suicide. So, this topic honestly is a difficult, yet, emotional one to discuss.