Suicide Among the Young

Since the mid-1960s, the suicide rate among those aged fifteen to twenty-four has climbed steadily. Although most adults have had some experience of bereavement or depression that makes them able to understand the suicide impulse in other adults, suicide in young people is much more difficult to comprehend. How can those who, as the cliché goes, "have their whole life ahead of them" reach the point where they have nothing to live for?
Psychologists and other observers have suggested a number of factors that may be responsible: the rising divorce rate and the effect of parental divorce on adolescents; fears about the future, whether of unemployment, or nuclear annihilation;and stresses stemming from school or parental pressure. A recent survey sought to identify the factors behind young people's attempts to take their own lives. The investigators compared 505 suicide attempters who came to the emergency room of a large children's hospital with 505 sex-and age-matched controls who were treated at the emergency room, but not for a suicide attempt. Among the attempters, there were three times as many girls as boys, and the girls were older (the average age was 15.3 years for the girls and 14.7 years for the boys). When compared with the control, the suicide attempters had more experience with substance abuse, more history of psychiatric disorder, and more prior psychotherapy. In addition, the families of the attempters had more psychiatric disorder (primarily alcohol and drug abuse), more history of suicide, more parental unemployment, and more parental absence--whether through death, divorce or single parenting.

From this picture, we can conclude that suicidal young people often have real problems, and these problems very often have their roots in their parents problems. For teenagers, these difficulties are multiplied: They are still dependent on their families for love and support that may not be forthcoming. They are often too young to seek professional help themselves or if they can and do, the "professional" help may be (and often is) unqualified, of no help what so ever, or serves to render the situation worse instead of better..
These young people may indeed feel that there is no one to turn to and that death is the only solution. Given the pathology that exists within many families, there is no simple solution to this problem. Because teachers often have the most contact with an adolescent, school counselling services may offer the best help.
LINK--http://thegirvanway.blogspot.com/2010/03/suicide.html