Teen Suicide Essays - Psychiatry, Behavioural Sciences,

Teen Suicide Why do Teens Contemplate to Suicide? As the third largest cause of death between the ages of 15 and 24, the adolescent suicide rate has tripled since 1960. This is the only age group in which an increase has occurred over the last three decades. While there are approximately 10,000 reported teen suicides annually, it is estimated that the number of teen suicides is actually three to four times that number when unreported deaths and suicide equivalents are added. The teenage years are a period of turmoil for just about everyone. You`re learning new social roles, developing new relationships, getting used to the changes in your body, and making decisions about your future. And when you`re looking for answers to problems, it can seem like no one has them. That can make a person feel quite alone. Teenagers experience strong feelings, confusion, self-doubt, pressure to succeed, financial uncertainty, and other fears while growing up. Teenagers commit suicide because there is too much pain in their lives and they can do one of the two things; move from the pain or learn to cope with the pain. While some teenagers learn to cope with the pain, others attempt suicide. Suicide among young people have increased nationwide in the recent years and it is important that everyone is aware of the major causes, symptoms, and methods of prevention of this self-inflicted death. To further understand suicide, one must take a look at the different reasons behind the act itself. Suicide is not a genetic disease, but rather a series of events that are very depressing or stressful. Without depression, most people would not attempt to take their own lives. Depression is a vital issue in almost every suicide attempt. The victim feels very depressed and everything seems to be going the wrong way. Depression is not just sadness. Depression is a mild form mental illness, which can be permanent or temporary. It can be simple things like the loss of interest in usual activities. The start of what leads a person to suicide does not have anything to do with the person`s present life experiences, but with their early childhood experiences. This is because the view of others, outside family and friends, has no contribution to the pain that causes suicide and depression. Depression can include self-pity, shame, envy, and grandiosity. All of these things play a role in depression one way or another. Depressed people are usually subject to desire and grandiose ideation. Grandiosity is best described as when a person starts thinking they are above everyone and everything else. They absurdly exaggerate many things in their lives just for attention it brings them. Envy, another cause of depression, has two aspects. In its primary sense, envy is the experience of pain when a person sees that someone else has something desirable, which he would like. Envy is also the experience of pleasure, when the person who has that desired quality suffers misfortune. Shame, in depression, is usually aimed inward toward the victim, or depressed person. When self-pity, another depression mode, is thought of , it usually brings up the feelings of being sad or angry for mistakes that happened in the past. Depressed adolescents frequently communicate their despair before they act out in this final act of desperation. Teens tend to reflect their dysphoria with action rather than words. For example, they are inclined to withdraw from others, complain of boredom, and have an increasingly difficult time concentrating. School performance tends to suffer and changes in personality may include increased aggression. Depression is like a bad dream, but with help, a person can overcome this bad dream and awake. The biology of the brain, genetics, psychological traits, and social forces all can contribute to suicide. Biological research indicates that suicidal behavior runs in families, suggesting that genetic and biological factors play a role in one`s suicide risk. Among one community of Amish people in Pennsylvania, almost three-quarters of all suicides that occurred over a 100-year period were in just four families. Studies of twins reared apart provide some support for a genetic influence in suicide. People may inherit a genetic predisposition to certain psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and alcoholism that increase the risk of suicide. In addition, an inability to control impulsive and violent behavior have biological roots. Research has found lower than normal levels of substance associated with the brain chemical serotonin in people with impulsive aggressiveness. In the early 1900s, Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud developed some of the first psychological theories of suicide. He emphasized the role of