Teen Suicide

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Menstuff® has compiled information on the issue of Teen Suicide. If you are crisis, 1st call 911 while you're looking in the front of your local yellow pages for the number of the local suicide prevention hotline. If you can't get through to either of those, click on Emergency Numbers. Also check out www.virtualcity.com/youthsuicide for information on youth suicide, for gay youth suicide check out www.sws.soton.ac.uk/gay-youth-suicide and www.metanoia.org/suicide contains conversations and writings for suicidal persons to read.

Are You Feeling Suicidal?
Darkness and Light: Teen Suicide in America
When Someone Feels Suicidal
Warning Signs
How to Help
Teen Suicide
Gay Suicide
The Warning Signs and Major Risk Factors of Teenage Suicide
Teen Suicide & Firearms
Interventions
Statistics
Snippets
Deaths by Suicide and Self-inflicted Injury age 15-24, 1991-1993
Newsbytes

• Many Teens at Risk for Suicide Don't Get Help
• Study Shows 900,000 Teens Planned Suicides While Depressed
• Bush Signs Youth Suicide Prevention Law
• Student Suicide Prevention Shows Results
• "My friend is talking about suicide. What should I do?"
• Black Male Teen-ager Suicide Rates Increase

Related Issues:  Talking With Kids About Tough Issues, Guns

Teen Suicide

Suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in the US with 31,204 deaths recorded in 1995. This approximates to around one death every seventeen minutes. There are more suicides than homicides each year in the US.

From 1952 to 1992, the incidence of suicide among teens and young adults tripled. Today, it is the third leading cause of death for teenagers aged 15-19 (after motor vehicle accidence and unintentional injury). Two-thirds of all suicides under 25 were committed with firearms (accounts for most of the increase in suicides from 1980 to 1992). The second most common method was hanging, third was poisoning. Suicide is increasing, particularly for those under 14 and in those over 65, while not the leading cause of death, the suicide rate is extremely high.

Young men commit suicide successfully at a higher rate than women in all 30 countries listed below. In the US, the ratio between men and women was 4.1:1 while in young people 15-24 the average ratio is 5.5:1 and the ratio increases with age within this group. In white males over 85, the suicide rate was 73.6/100,000 in 1993. For more information:  www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/10lc92c.htm; www.nosuicide.com:80/stats.htm; www/nimh.nih.gov/;www.nosoidice.com

"So You Wanna Kill Yourself?  Gays and Suicide."

"Far more women suffer from depression that men do, so it seems odd that women would commit suicide at only one-fourth the rate of men. The key difference between the two sexes may be that women talk out their problems. George E. Murphy, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, says that women may be protected because they are more likely to consider the consequences of suicide on family members or others. Women also approach personal problems differently than men and more often seek help long before they reach the point of considering suicide. 'As a result, women get better treatment for their depressions,' Murphy says. To reduce the rate of suicide in men, Murphy suggests that physicians should be alert for risk factors in men and refer them into treatment. Writing in the Journal of Comprehensive Psychiatry, he says that identifying men at risk require mental health professionals to recognize that depressed men may understate emotional distress or difficulty with their problems."  Black Men, 3/99. Source:  HealthScout, www.healthscout.com

It's important for people with suicidal feelings to let themselves be assisted in overcoming deep depression. It's also a good idea to talk about your feelings with friends. No man is an island and there's nothing wrong with leaning on people who love you in times of need.

See Suicide Prevention Services available locally. Dial 411 for your city's Suicide Prevention Hotline, or try your local Gay & Lesbian Center, which offers referrals for counseling, domestic violence and suicide prevention.

The Warning Signs and Major Risk Factors of Teenage Suicide

Although it is almost impossible to predict precisely which teenager will attempt suicide, there are warning signs that parents can look for. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has assembled this list of indications. If one or more of these signs occur, parents should talk to their teenager and seek professional help.

• Unusual changes in eating and sleeping habits
• Withdrawal from friends, family, and regular activities
• Violent actions, rebellious behavior, or running away
• Excessive drug and alcohol abuse
• Unusual neglect of personal appearance
• Marked personality change
• Persistent boredom, difficulty concentrating, or a decline in the quality of schoolwork
• Frequent complaints about physical symptoms, often related to emotions, such as stomachaches, headaches, fatigue, etc.
• Loss of interest in pleasurable activities
• Not tolerating praise or rewards
• Complaints of feeling “rotten inside”
• Giving verbal hints such as “Nothing matters,” “It’s no use,” or “I won’t be a problem for you much longer”
• Putting his or her affairs in order by giving or throwing away favorite possessions or belongings
• Becoming suddenly cheerful after an episode of depression

In high-risk patients—that is patients who have threatened or attempted suicide—there are four risk factors that account for more than 80% of the risk for suicide: major depression, bipolar disorder, a lack of previous mental health treatment, and the availability of firearms in the home. If these four problems were solved, most suicides would be prevented.

Source: Maureen Empfield, M.D. and Nicholas Bakalar

Snippets:

• Persons under 25 account for 15% of all suicides.
• Between 1952 and 1995, the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled.
• Many who make suicide attempts never seek professional care immediately after the attempt.
• Suicide was the eighth leading cause of death of all Americans, the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds, behind unintentional injury and homicide.
• More men than women die by suicide. The gender ratio is 4:1.
• 73% of all suicide deaths are white males.
  80% of all firearm suicide deaths are white males.
• Nearly 3 of every 5 suicides were committed with a firearm. Among persons 15-19, firearm-related suicides accounted for 62% of the increase in the overall rate of suicide.
• The risk for suicide among young people is greatest among young white males although the suicide rates increased most rapidly among young black males.
• Although suicide among young children is a rare event, the dramatic increase in the rate among persons aged 10-14 underscores the urgent need for intensifying efforts to prevent suicide among persons in this age group..
• More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined.
  

Deaths by Suicide and Self-inflicted Injury per 100,000 age 15-24, 1991-1993

				Ranked by	Ranked by	Ranked by
Country	Males	Females	Ratio M/F	Males	Females	Highest Ratio M/F
Australia	27.3	5.6	5/1	9	11	7
Austria	21.1	6.5	3/1	15	7	21
Belarus	24.2	5.2	5/1	12	14	7
Bulgaria	15.4	5.6	3/.1	20	11	21
Canada	24.7	6.0	4/1	11	10	15
Czech Rep	16.4	4.3	4/1	19	18	25
Estonia	29.7	10.6	3/1	7	1	21
Finland	33.0	3.2	10/1	6	22	2
Germany	12.7	3.4	4/1	21	21	15
Greece	3.8	0.8	5/1	30	30	7
Hungary	19.1	6.5	3/1	16	7	21
Ireland	21.5	2.0	11/1	14	27	1
Israel	11.7	2.5	5/1	23	23	7
Italy	5.7	1.6	4/1	28	29	15
Japan	10.1	4.4	2/1	24	14	27
Latvia	35.0	9.3	4/1	5	2	15
Lithuania	44.9	6.7	7/1	1	5	3
Netherlands	9.1	3.8	2/1	26	19	27
New Zealand	39.9	6.2	51	3	9	5
Norway	28.2	5.2	5/1	8	14	7
Poland	16.6	2.5	7/1	18	23	3
Portugal	4.3	2.0	2/1	29	30	27
Russian Fed	41.7	7.9	5/1	2	4	7
Slovenia	37.0	8.4	4/1	4	3	15
Spain	7.1	2.2	3/1	27	26	21
Sweden	10.0	6.7	1/1	25	5	30
Switzerland	25.0	4.8	5/1	10	16	7
Ukraine	17.2	5.3	3/1	17	13	21
UK	12.2	2.3	5/1	22	25	7
US	21.9	3.8	6/1	13	19	5

Source: WHO, World Health Statistics Annual 1993 and 1994, 1994 and 1995, Center for Disease Control, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; National Institute for Mental Health.

Newsbytes

Many Teens at Risk for Suicide Don't Get Help

Bush Signs Youth Suicide Prevention Law

Black Male Teen-ager Suicide Rates Increase

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We can't tear out a single page from our life, but we can throw the whole book into the fire. - George Sand

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