Teen Suicide
Every teenager feels sad, discouraged, or stressed out once in a while. But what if things get so bad that death seems like the only way out? If a friend talks or jokes about suicide, how seriously should you take it? Why would a teenager want to kill him or herself when they have their entire life ahead of them? Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers between the ages of 15 to 24 years old (see Frankel, Chiles, and Schleifer). Suicide is the second leading cause of death among high school and college students. The number of young people who kill themselves is not getting any smaller. The death of a teenager is a terrible tragedy in any case; however, a teenager whom takes his own life is much worse. The number of teenagers that are taking their own lives have gone up over the years. According to John Chiles M.D., "Among 15 to 19 year olds, suicide is the third leading cause of death, exceeding traffic accidents and murders. The suicide ra
te [...] has nearly tripled in the past 25 years" (20). About 2,000 teenagers commit suicide every year. Since 1950, teenage suicide has increased 300 percent (Chiles 16). Compared to 5 to 19 year olds, twice as many 20 to 24 year olds kill themselves. According to the October 5, 1991 Science news, "1 in 12 U. S. high school students have attempted suicide" (quoted in Frankel 7). "One of the most important distinctions in the research on suicide concerns the difference between people who attempt suicide but do not complete it and people who actually end their own lives" (Frankel 67). Although every suicide attempt is serious, no matter the out come, doctors believe that many people attempt suicide without the intent to actually die. The statistics cited by George Howe Colt in The Enigma of Suicide, "90 percent of all teenage suicide attempts are made at home, 70 percent of them while the parents are actually in the house" (quoted in Chiles 68). A teenager who at
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Approximate Word count = 659
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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