The Problem of Teenage Suicide :: Teenage Suicide Essays

The Problem of Teenage self-annihilation about e re eitheryone at some time in his or her life volition experience periods of anxiety, sadness, and despair. These are normal reactions to the pain of loss, rejection, or disappointment. Those with serious noetic illnesses, however, often experience much more extreme reactions, reactions that can advance them mired in hopelessness. And when all hope is lost, some feel that felo-de-se is the only solution.According to the National Institute of Mental Health, scientific consequence has shown that almost all people who take their own lives befuddle a diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorder, and the majority have more than one disorder. In other words, the feelings that often lead to felo-de-se are highly treatable. Thats why it is imperative that we better sympathise the symptoms of the disorders and the behaviors that often accompany thoughts of self-annihilation. With more knowledge, we can often prevent the wipeout o f losing a loved one.Now the eighth- leading driving force 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 command David Satcher, for instance, recently announced his Call to Action to Prevent Suicide, 1999, an initiative intend 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 nations 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 tragiclives lost before theyve even started. Yet, while all of this recent focus is good, its only the beginning. We cannot continue to lose so many lives unnecessarily.Some Basic FactsIn 1996, more teenagers and y oung adults died of suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. In 1996, suicide was the second-leading cause of death among college students, the third-leading cause of death among those aged 15 to 24 years, and the fourth- leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 14 years. From 1980 to 1996, the rate of suicide among African-American males aged 15 to 19 years change magnitude by 105 percent. It is a hopeful sign that while the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled from 1965 to 1987, teen suicide rates in the past(a) ten years have actually been declining, possibly due to increased recognition and treatment.