Najah Walker
05-06-13
3rd
Teen Suicide
Many people do not know the rates of teen suicide worldwide. They know that it happens but what they don’t know is how many times a teen tries or will commit suicide. Teen suicide is one of the main reasons for the cause of deaths for teens. Teen suicide can affect our youth population and it can affect peers, friends, or families of the person. We need to put a stop to teen suicide before it gets out of hand!
WHAT:
The first aspect we need to know is what is suicide? According to Dictionary.com, Suicide is “the intentional taking of one’s own life, or to kill oneself”, unlike homicide. When you think of suicide you should think of a person who tries to take their life away for some type of reason. Teenagers are at the age where they take stuff so seriously. They get into the adolescent age stage period and think everything is complicated. We just need to understand that this is nothing to play with. Suicidal behaviors are when someone purposely kills themselves. Suicidal attempts are when someone puts an effort into killing themselves but doesn’t achieve. The person who survives may have certain types of injuries depending on how they tried to kill themselves, like they could have brain damage. The survivor may have mental or depression issues afterwards. The warning signs for a suicidal plan can be “ creating suicide notes, threatening to or talking about wanting to hurt or kill him/herself, expressing odd or troubling thoughts, showing a dramatic change in personality or appearance, throwing or giving away or promising to give away valued possessions to family members or friends, talking about not being around in the future or "going away", and searching for and trying to obtain weapons, pills, or other means ways to kill him/herself ” (Department of Health: Information for a Healthy New York).
WHY:
Teens can commit suicide for a various amount of reasons. The reasons are because of they are in the age bracket where they think their problems can’t be solved and they want to escape the situation as soon as possible, so they think of killing themselves. Also, other reasons are depression, stress, peer pressure, financial problems in family, divorce of parents, having step parents, moving, physical, verbal, or sexual abuse, domestic violence, or drug or alcohol addiction that’s in the family or of the teen itself. Those are only a few reasons why they can commit suicide, there are many more though. Adolescents’ can take something so little and turn it into a huge problem, overreact. Teens attempt or complete suicide as a way to escape their problems, but do they actually realize that they’re not only escaping their problems but also everything else, life in general?
WHEN:
Teenagers can commit suicide when they’re at a breaking point and can’t deal with the problems or pain, or it can happen at the beginning; it can happen at the same time problems first starts and they don’t won’t to go through all the trouble. When you see someone trying to attempt or commit suicide, take it very seriously, and see if they want to explain their problem. If the individual does want to explain their problem or situation be considerate of their feelings, don’t be judgmental. “You should listen to what he or she is telling you and show that you understand how they’re feeling” (Larry’s view). Also, if you need to get help never leave the person by themselves, call 911 or to the nearest adult nearby.
WHERE:
This can take place anywhere, in a school, at home, a mall, in public or even in a random place. The place where it happens can be a childhood memory, a favorite place, or somewhere the victim values the most. Also, “research has shown that most adolescent suicides occur after school hours and in the teen’s home” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP). The setting depends on the victim. There is not a specific place where teens commit suicide but many results show that they do occur inside their home.
HOW:
“If a teen wants to commit suicide, he or she will find any means possible to inflict pain” says Larry. There are plenty ways that teenagers will end their life; it is known that you can find drugs or firearms anywhere. So, most teens will find them a way to get some, they’ll just ask around. Another common way that “males commit suicide is hanging; females will overdose on drugs, which is a form of self-poison” (Larry). Another way teens can commit suicide is by taking a simple medicine but taking multiples of it. Many children are most likely to use suffocation. The situation can even be as fearless as jumping off of a bridge.
WHO:
We are talking about teens between the ages of 13 and 19. Basically, anybody can cause a youth to commit suicide, there isn’t a particular person. Parents can cause this to happen by being verbally, or physically abusive, or even in the parents are divorced, which could make a youth want to end life so easily. Students at school particularly bullies can be a reason. The teen could’ve been adopted or has a step mother or father that they dislike and they want to avoid dealing with the family, or step parent. It can even be a sibling, they might say words that they don’t mean like, “I wish you were never born”, and things like that can make the child think of actually disappearing forever. Other people like teachers, coaches, friends, etc. can impact a person’s life.
PROBLEM:
This has become a big issue because our youth are being killed away that could’ve been or would’ve had a big impact in our world. Those youth that are accomplishing or undertaking suicide today could’ve become the first to have an idea to cure cancer or HIV. This may too affect the family of the teenager. That teenager could’ve been the only child or the only gender of a multiple of siblings. If you were in their position, how do you think they’re feeling? You never know what is going through a teenagers head.
SOLUTION:
We can prevent teen suicide by being aware of the adolescents’ friends or peers, be careful of what you say because many can take your wordings the wrong way. You should also look out for the suicide warning signs, don’t take them lightly or promise to keep them a secret. If you see a friend or peer trying to commit suicide, the first thing you should do is ask questions. Be sensitive, but ask direct questions, find out if the person is in danger or acting on suicidal feelings. You should offer the opportunity to see if the person wants to talk about what they’re going through, to reduce some of the pressure off their shoulders. One thing to never do is leave the person alone, immediately contact 911 or if you’re at a school call for the nearest teacher or adult. Also, if the teenager needs someone to talk to they can contact the National Prevention Suicide Lifeline which is, 1-800-273-8255.
CONCLUSION:
Everyone needs to be on a look out for teen suicide. You never know how someone is feeling inside or what they’re going through. Teen suicide can happen anywhere at any time, it can happen by taking pills or any other resource that can cause death. If you see someone attempting suicide be calm and see if they want to express their feelings to you or you should call 911 or the closest adult around, never leave the teen alone. This can happen for a certain amount of reasons but it’s all because adolescents’ has the mind mentality that their problems can’t be fixed. The massive predicament is that our youth are being killed away that could’ve had an impact in our world or society and the percentage of teen suicide has inclined since the past four years. In order for this to change, we have to come together and organize a group for teen suicide awareness but the little priorities we could do to help a person is to become mindful of a teenagers surroundings, and the little behavior changes. Basically, all we have to do is be alert of the warning signs and little changes of the teenager. If you still don’t get the point, view it this way: What if you had a brother, sister, cousin or friend that attempted or accomplished suicide as a teen? How would you feel? Would you try to change, help or inform others about teen suicide?
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
