Research Essay On Teenage Suicide Essay Research

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For my Research Essay I chose the subject of Teenage Suicide’, because the rate of suicide is too high and I want to know more about the causes, the ways we can prevent it, and I want to know the warnings made by a suicidal person. Suicide is a form of death in which an individual voluntarily and intentionally takes his or her life. In the last two and a half decades, beginning in 1980, suicides have increased dramatically in both the United States and Canada. The greatest increase in suicide rates, and the one most devastating, has been among teenagers. Every one hundred minutes, a young person commits suicide.

Each year, more than 5,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 take their own

lives.

An estimated 400,000 teenagers attempt suicide each year. This means that more than 1,000 teens each day make an attempt on their own life.

With the rate of suicide for the 15-24 year old group at 12.1 suicide for every 100,000 persons, suicide is the third leading cause of death for this age group. In the last 25 years, the suicide rate for young people has tripled.

In 1983, a Cornell University study found that 10% of adolescent had suicidal thoughts and impulses. In 1987, 33% of teenagers were discovered to have suicidal impulses. And now the percentage is at 45%.

Adolescent and young adults commit suicide more than any other age group. Five times as many males commit suicide, but female attempt suicide 3 times as often as males.

First we’re going to see what are the causes of suicide. Suicidal young people generally feel helpless, hopeless, worthless and very lonely. He or she will have no one to talk about it. So there is the problem, because they think that it doesn’t matter to anyone if they live or die. In several cases, suicidal young people have a feeling of utter failure and are unable to cope with their personal problems. The emotional pain they feel is unbearable and they think that the only way to get rid of his/her problems is by killing themselves. Other factors of suicide are a loss of boy/girlfriend, low self-esteem, physical illness and mental disorder…

Now let’s look at the warning signs of suicide, two of the most critical and significant clues in the detection of suicidal individuals are the presence of depression and indications of a conscious suicidal preoccupation or intention in the behavior or work of the person.

Since that more than eighty percent of those attempting suicide have depressive symptoms, it is important to be aware of the significant symptoms of depressive disorders.

For example; a loss of interest in sex is a symptom, a loss of energy, a loss of

memory, self-reproach, loss of self-confidence are all symptoms that you may perceive when someone has suicidal thoughts.

These were symptoms, now let’s look at the real warnings, the oral warnings…

When someone says, for example; “I am going to kill myself, I want to die…as soon as possible” that’s when someone is a potentially suicidal person and they are direct statements, here are indirect statements; “You’ll be sorry when I’ll be gone, I wish I had never been born, this family would be better off without me”.

These are more serious sentences then others because they have a meaning that comes with it in this case you have a job to do!!!

Here are the things to do when you think that someone you know is thinking about suicide, it is important that you:

-Take all threats seriously; Do not doubt your suspicions. Trust your judgement.

-Answer all calls and cries for help; Do not ignore suicidal warning signs. The earlier you offer help the better your chances of saving a life.

-Tell the person that you care; use whatever sentence that you want but make sure that it feels comfortable and appropriate.

-Seek professional help; One of the most difficult things to do is encourage the potentially suicidal individual to get professional help, but it is the most practical thing to do.

To conclude this essay I hope that you learned something and if you knew all that stuff then you’re pretty good!!! Suicide is in the subject of our everyday life and will always be but I’m still hoping and sure you are that the rate should go down to make a change. There’s one thing I tried to look for but I found no answer, and the question is “Why is the rate of suicide so high in Canada”, I looked at several places but no answer??? But anyway if you know a suicidal teenager or even adult, now you’ll know what to do.

Eric Thivierge

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