I was at a volleyball tournament in Chicago. We had just lost the championship game and all my teammates were clearly upset. My coach emerged from the locker room; her eyes were swollen and red from crying. Suddenly, every phone began vibrating, ringing, and lighting up. Confused, I read the thirty-two text messages I had received in the span of ten minutes. Every single one contained the same message, Karen was gone; she had committed suicide. From that day forward the word suicide has never held the same context. Rather than teenage suicide being some controversy discussed in the news, it became a painful reality.
Suicide, the deliberate act of ending one's own life, is currently on the rise and has become the third leading cause of death amongst adolescents and teenagers. In the past twenty-five years, the general occurrence of suicide has decreased, yet the rate for those between ages fifteen and twenty-four have tripled, ages that encompasses both high school and college students. Although the decision to commit suicide is highly personal and may not be fully determined, there are certain situations and circumstances that share common threads. The rates of suicide amongst college students are increasing due to major life transitions, which may cause existing psychological problems to arise or even trigger new ones along with increased substance abuse in the college setting. In addition to psychological problems and substance abuse, potential warning signs are not recognized, or we merely refuse to accept them.
Going away to college is a rite of passage felt by millions of teenagers across the country. For many, it is a time of excitement, even though it could be three o’clock in the morning and that dang History paper isn’t...
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... Sometimes, the news of a close friend committing suicide emerges from no preconceived notion, no warning signs, just the fact they are gone. On September 6th 2008 I lost one of my best friends to suicide. She was a college freshman who showed no outward sign of depression, she did not abuse drugs, yet she is still not with us today. Academic pressures frequently cause depression amongst students. Untreated and prolonged depression, along with substance abuse, often leads to suicide. In a culture where stress is the norm and sleepless nights of cramming for exams occur weekly, suicide rates are increasing. This can no longer be ignored by fellow classmates, parents, and university administrators. Our communities must take action against this preventable tragedy, so others may never have to experience the anguish felt by those who have lost loved ones to 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 ...
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)
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...
The Signs of Suicide (SOS) program is an educational approach in reducing suicidal behaviors among students. It is school-based preventative program that “incorporates two prominent suicide prevention strategies into a single program by combining curricula to raise awareness of suicide and its related issues with a brief screening for depression and other risk factors associated with suicidal behavior” (D & L., 1999, p. 70). The SOS program offers a series of advantages over the other programs. Besides introducing students with suicide prevention information, “self-screening techniques and peer support establishment are essential attributes to the SOS program” (Aseltine & DeMartino, 2004, p. 446). It can also be implemented with “minimal staff training and that the program does not unduly burden teachers, counselors, or administrative staff” (Aseltine, 2003).
The survey found gender and parents' education level did not seem to provoke suicidal tendencies, but other demographic factors. These other such factors included age, class standing, race/ethnicity, living arrangement, and fraternity/sorority membership. The questionnaire indicated that freshmen and sophomores were more likely to consider suicide than upper-classmen; students of ethnic/racial backgrounds other than White, Black or Hispanic were more likely to have considered suicide; students who lived alone, with friends/roommates, or parents/guardians were more likely than those who lived with a partner or spouse; students who were members of a fraternity/sorority were less likely to have considered suicide. The components of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal substance use were then configured into the results.
Why suicide? Why is it becoming a more common escape method from the academic, financial, and transitional burdens put on college students? Depression and suicides among college students make more headlines than the more familiar problems of drinking and vandalism that occur on campus. Suicides are a dramatic way to relieve stress or depression. Although suicides are fairly rare, they still account for the third leading cause of deaths of individuals raging from 15-24 years of age (Suicide Rates and the Troubling Economy.) There are many reasons why these mental health problems are on the rise and why they will continue to occur (Depression, Suicide Rising among College Students.)
Julie Scelfo’s “Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection” first appeared in The New York Times magazine on July 27, 2015. Scelfo discusses the pressure that family, society, and the individual places on themselves to be perfect. This stress ultimately results in college- age students taking their own lives. “Nationally, the suicide rate among 15- to 24-year-olds has increased modestly but steadily since 2007: from 9.6 deaths per 100,000 to 11.1 in 2013.” Scelfo uses an anecdote, statistics, and expert’s observations to successfully portray her stance on this issue.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 25 suicides are attempted for each one completed. (Hogarty 1) Suicide is becoming a problem. You can tell when someone is contemplating suicide by a change in their behavior. Students who are bullied might become antisocial. Students who have relationship problems at school and at home might become depressed. It is seen daily on social media and the news. Suicide doesn’t belong to just a certain age of students. Students who mention to their peers that they have thoughts of suicide often speak with a counselor or therapist regarding their thoughts. However, many students do not have the correct training or classes to discuss suicide with their fellow classmates. According to the New York Daily News, “Nearly 1 in 6 high school students has
In the past 35 years the suicide rate for college campuses has tripled (Oswalt 1995). This shows that there is a clear need for something to be addressed within the college community. The recent surveys show that about 10-15% of college students are depressed (Lindsey 2009). Depression can be a debilitating illness especially when many students attend college away from their close friends and family. This could result in students with more suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide. In fact, the number of students with suicidal thoughts has tripled over the past 13 years as the number of students seeking help for depression doubled in the same span (Lindsey 2009). Depression can effect these teens in other areas of their life as well. The students who reported that they were depressed also reported that they considered their health fair or poor (Lindsey 2009). In their cases, depression not only effects them psychologically but also physically. Depression is also known to impair psychosocial development and academic success (Lindsey 2009). With all of these factors put togethe...
A young anonymous college freshman tells a story of the depression she faced throughout her first semester of college, through the transition and her roommate issues. Not only did it occur during her first semester, but through her second as well. Unfortunately, the depression overtook her life to the point of her desire to commit suicide. Luckily, she changed her mind in the last second and saved herself (Reachout.com). This young student is not just one of few depressed college students, but she is one of many. Colleges must take more responsibility of mental health issues, like depression, by researching the causes and effects while discovering beneficial treatments that promote the students’ overall well being.
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.
Suicide has become a critical, national problem and the extent of this is mind-boggling. Suicides have been proven to be one of the leading causes of death among college students. According to Webters dictionary “suicide is the act killing oneself on purpose”. It derived from the Latin sui, meaning “self”, and caedere, which means “to kill”. But this is just a definition, because an actual suicide holds different meanings to people such as tragic, shocking, a relief, a cry for help, a shame, heroic, the right choice, punishment, revenge, protest, anger, a mistake, desperate, hurtful and many more. But why do people, like college students who have their entire future ahead of them, simply give up hope and turn their heads away from life and commit suicide. There are several causes of suicide, recent incidents of suicide on college campuses, warning signs from a suicidal. I blame the Constitution and the United States law for not taking any hard initiative on the subject of suicide. I also impose the choice of the media, which is reflecting and portraying suicide towards a wrong direction. However most important questions remain: can the growing epidemic of suicide be solved, what are communities doing about it and what can they do to help?
“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.
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.