There are too many teen suicide stories in the news. In Norwood, PA, three teen girls made a suicide pact. They stood on the train tracks as the train approached, determined to die. One of the girls, backed out and screamed to the others to move, but they just hugged each other and stood there. Read Article from Gather.com Entertainment Tonight recently reported that TV and music star Marie Osmond’s 18-year-old son, Michael Blosil, committed suicide last Friday in Los Angeles. In his suicide note, he described a life-long battle with depression, the reason for his suicide. Osmond said Michael became depressed after she and her ex-husband, Brian Blosil, separated, and that he entered rehab in November 2007. According to suicide.org, a teen takes his or her own life every 100 minutes. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. Approximately 20 percent of teens experience depression before they reach adulthood, and between 10 to 15 percent suffer from symptoms at any one time. Only 30 percent of depressed teens are being treated for it.Some teens are more at risk for teen depression and suicide than others. Among them:
- Teen females develop depression twice as often than men.
- Abused and neglected teens are at risk.
- Adolescents who suffer from chronic illnesses or other physical conditions.
- Teens with a family history of depression or mental illness. Between 20 to 50 percent of teens suffering from depression have a family member with depression or some other mental disorder.
- Teens with untreated mental or substance-abuse problems. Approximately two-thirds of teens with major depression also battle another mood disorder like dysthymia, anxiety, antisocial behaviors, or substance abuse.
- Young people who experienced trauma or disruptions at home, including divorce and deaths of parents.
Some experts speculate that, after a decline in the 1990s, the number of teenage suicide began to climb again about five years ago. According to a piece in the Kansas City Star by Laura Bauer and Mara Rose Williams titled “‘A Very Dangerous Time’ Drives Up Teen Suicides After Years of Decline,” there is more hopelessness and helplessness among teens today. Tony Jurich, professor of family studies and human services at Kansas State University, says, “Teens think they are invincible, so when they feel psychological pain, they are more apt to feel overwhelmed by hopelessness and the belief that they have no control over their lives.” A new study released in January of this year, led by Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor, finds that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era. Twenge, author of Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before, analyzed the responses of over 77,000 college students who took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory from 1938 through 2007. Some experts say that we have raised our children with unrealistic expectations, the same message perpetually fed to us by media: we should feel good always. Some say parents haven’t taught kids the real coping skills they need in today’s turbulent world … I suspect the guys who have never had a kid puke up strained carrots on them. Read More of this article from PsychCentral.com
