Suicide, America’s Hidden Devastation Essay -- Essays Papers

Suicide, America’s Hidden Devastation Suicide is one of the youth’s ways out of their problems, not only in the United States but the world. What does drive teens to suicidal thoughts and actions? What are the ways communities help prevent teenage suicide? Perhaps there are signs can be pointed out that would indicate a problem. In two surveys in 1996, both reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health, both also asked relatively the same questions of the violent actions that some people may see in life’. Surprisingly, the numbers for many of the questions were the same, such as teens who witnessed a shooting first hand; they both were about 37% (Pastore, Fisher, and Friedman 321-2). Using information such as this, one cannot blame the recent rise in teenage suicide with the violent problems of life, but more along the lines of depression caused by multiple things, for instance body image. According to many researchers, alcohol is many times a solution to a teen’s problem with life and the hardships people face in it. Many people in the United States overlook the major problem of teenage suicide; this is a mistake There are many things which can drive a teen to commit suicide some of them are as simple as making fun of the â€Å"fat† kid in class; others can come from the mental images from witnessing a shooting. There are four major issues which contribute to teen suicide such as depression, family problems, risk factors, and teens reactions to there climate. Depression, unfortunately, is one of the biggest factors of today’s teenage suicide problems and some of the reasons for it are from the student’s own peers, â€Å"being depressed is triggered by loss or rejection (Joan 59).† Depression can be f... ...ter than to do so. I know what it is like to loose something that you love so much so that you don’t think you can go on in life. We as a community must somehow set up a better support technique in order to save teens from this devastating misfortune. We can help, it’s just how much effort one is willing to put forth. Works Cited Allen, Janet. End-of-Life Issues. Westport, Connecticut. Greenwood Press, 2002 Garfinkel, Barry and Northrup, Gorden. Absolute Suicide. New York and London. Haworth Press, 1989 Joan, Polly. Preventing Teenage Suicide. New York. Human Sciences Inc., 1986 Orbach, Israel. Children Who Don’t Want to Live. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass Inc., 1988 Pastore, Fisher, and Friedman. â€Å"Violence and Mental Health Problems among Urban High School Students.† Journal of Adolescent Health. New York. Elsevier Science Inc., 1996