Suicide at a Younger Age?

Everyone knows suicide is a horrible way to "free" yourself from daily struggles. To me it is a shock that teenage suicide is higher than adult suicide. Teenagers don't have to go to work or raise families. (Usally) So I guess I am asking what are some thoughts on the growing teenage suicide rate.

I think some are actually the kids seeing the struggles their parents have to deal with, raising families, money trouble, possibly health issues and they lose hope in their future.

quote Im_in_luv_with_a_emo

To me it is a shock that teenage suicide is higher than adult suicide.

1. Teenagers are less likely to be mature enough to explore other options than suicide.

2. Teenagers are more likely to be exposed to an environment that pressures them towards suicide.

That is true, but I think a lot of it has to do with the parents trying to keep their struggles secret, so the kids only see the pain and dont know the full explanations. (I'm not blaming parents at all, I am just saying that the kids dont ask in order to find out they just assume the worst.)

I read somewhere that the teen suicide rate isn't as high as everyone thinks. It's actually the same as the adult suicide rate. What actually happens is that there is a sharp spike in the rate of suicide (because ten year-olds aren't killing themselves), which levels out when it reaches the adult rate. Also we notice teens dying more of suicide because they don't die of heart failure or cancer.


here we go: http://agoraphilia.blogspot.com/2008/02/do-teens-commit-suicide-more-often.html

quote Im_in_luv_with_a_emo

Everyone knows suicide is a horrible way to "free" yourself from daily struggles. To me it is a shock that teenage suicide is higher than adult suicide. Teenagers don't have to go to work or raise families. (Usally) So I guess I am asking what are some thoughts on the growing teenage suicide rate.

It doesn't surprise me that more teens take their own lives more than adults do. It just seems the easiest option, although I'd never do it. Ever.

Adults just seem to get on with it to be honest. Plus growing out as an 'outcast' and/or having problems in your life at a young age could drive you to do it.

I don't know how i feel about this, while i understand that people are not able to cope especially at younger ages with difficulties that have been thrown their way, i feel little sympathy for those who lack the will to carry on. Life is meaningless, and it is a burden. It is our responsibility to live our own lives and get out of it what we want. We cannot place blame upon others for any circumstance because everything we are is a direct result of choices we ourselves made. Yes, life is harder on some than it is others, and some of us have had to make much harder choices, i know this better than almost anyone. but, it's ultimately yourself who determines what your life amounts to and what your options are. We are the perpetrators of our own life, and if we give up and let outside forces run us down, we are living a shallow life and don't deserve this shot anyway.

Albert Camus wrote the Myth of Sisyphrus, the man who knew all of Zeus's secrets and told them openly and honestly. Sisyphrus, because he exposed Zeus's greatest secrets, was banished to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. Now Sisyphrus has one of two choices; he can continue to push the boulder for all eternity or he could give up and let that rock crush and kill him. If he lets that rock crush him and end his life, he has allowed outside sources, the gods, to dictate the means and worth of his own life. But if he accepts the punishment and pushes the rock up and down the hill for all eternity, he is spitting in the face of the gods and dictating the terms of his own life, living it by his own desires and his own means.

So, while it's sad that young people end their own lives, what's even sadder is that they were not strong enough to persist and to carry on. In that sense, they failed as human beings and they likely would have squandered their life anyway.

I know what i'm saying is cruel, but as one who has contemplated ending my own life, i say it with absolute certainty.

It's hard tbh to give a definitive reasons; it could well be a sociological reason, but then again it could just as easily be a psychological one pertainng to the individual.

Personally I do think it could be the society in which we live in; which is continually telling people how to look, what is acceptable and what isn't, and what is expected of them; and if that expectation isn't met, then they are a failure.

As I said though it could be any number of things...