Teenage Suicide Essays -- Teenage Suicide Essays

Teenage Suicide Each day 86 Americans take their own lives and another 1,500 attempts to do so. Even more disturbing is that suicide among a young people nation wide have increased dramatically in recent years. In fact thousands of teenagers each year commit suicide. It is the third leading cause of death among young adults aged 15-24. With the first two leading causes being unintentional injury and homicide. There are many reasons why teenagers feel the need to take their own life. They are at a time in their life where they are strongly feeling stress, confusion, self doubt, pressure to succeed, and other fears while growing. Among the probable causes of teenage suicide are family problems, stress, drug and alcohol abuse, and depression. Depression and suicidal tendencies are caused by society today. What adolescents do not understand is that depression is a disease (Empfield, 2). With the proper medical treatment as well as psychiatric treatment one can overcome depression. For some teenagers, divorce, the formation of a new family or moving to a new community can be very unsettling. Leaving behind comfort when moving can result in anger toward parents, which is usually taken out at school or even on other children. The formation of a new family itself can be traumatic. What one child knew so well such as a father or mother, sisters and brothers, can be broken when they are "replaced" with new, particularly strange people who now have to share a home with this adolescent. Every day in America, 2,989 see their parents divorce (Empfield, 62). Young children take divorce the hardest for many reasons. It can even put them in a state of confusion. Since these young children are still growing, some of them still do not know wh... ...many adolescents in this country. Many adolescents do not realize that depression and suicidal feelings are treatable mental disorders. The first step is to recognize the illness. Thousands of books have tried to answer the question of why people kill themselves. To be summarized into three words: to stop pain. Sometimes the pain is physical, as in chronic or terminal illness. More often it is emotional, caused by a myriad of problems. In any case, suicide is not a random or senseless act, but an effective, if extreme, solution. Works Cited Dew, Diane. The Troubles Teens Face. [Http://www.dianedew.com/teens.htm]. Empfield, Maureen. Understanding Teenage Depression. New York: Henry Holt,2001. Kerns, Laurence L. Helping Your Depressed Child. Rockin: Prima Publishing, 1993. Suicide in the United States. [Http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm].