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The Tragedy of Suicide
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Johnston High School: Paige
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When someone says the word “suicide” it is usually met with silence. Just say the word, and immediately people want to avoid talking about the subject. Suicide describes the voluntary and intentional act of taking one’s own life. It comes from two Latin root words, sui (of oneself) and cidium (a killing or slaying). It is very difficult to understand an act that is contrary to living one’s day-to-day life. Most people want to experience aging, not to end their life prematurely.
Unfortunately, people are not transparent; you cannot look into their heads to see what they are thinking or feeling. Most people go through their day looking at people but not really seeing individuals. They might not notice that what they are seeing could be the person’s cry for help. Is it the person who comes from the perfect family but feels that they do not measure up? Or is it someone who comes from an abusive family? Do you connect with the person who is always eating alone, a loner? Do you see the person begging for help but not voicing it? Seeing people and connecting with them could be the first step in suicide prevention.
If you are a teenager contemplating suicide you may want to talk openly about your thoughts, but you may think society seems unwilling to hear them. You may start feeling isolated and in emotional pain and may begin to feel more and more alone. If you could have the opportunity to talk openly about your feelings, you may finally feel understood. By not keeping suicide under lock and key and trying to understand its occurrence, there could possibly be a means of preventing it from happening to you or someone you know.
Current State of Suicide
Taking one’s life has occurred throughout history. Even today, news stories tell of people taking their own lives. Young suicide bombers give up their lives for what they see as noble causes. Suicide continues to be a major concern in today’s society, and the problem is not lessening or going away.
Teen Suicide Statistics
It is very frightening when you look at suicide statistics for young men and women. A 2018 study published in Pediatrics found the number of school-age children and adolescents hospitalized for suicidal thoughts or attempts more than doubled between 2008 to 2015. Two-thirds of the youth hospitalized were girls. The CDC says suicide was the leading cause of death in 2021, behind unintentional injuries, for youth ages 10 to 24. A previous study in Pediatrics says teens and parents can identify risk factors, but don’t believe teen suicide is a problem in their communities. The Canadian Mental Health Association reports that suicide is the second leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of ten and twenty-four, and accounts for 24 percent of all deaths among fifteen- to twenty-four-year-olds. Statistics Canada estimates that approximately 10 people die by suicide every day.
In the United States, the youth suicide rate has risen dramatically over the past decades. The CDC reports that Native American/Alaskan Native and Hispanic youth have the highest rate of suicide fatalities. Black teenagers are now more than twice as likely to kill themselves as they were twenty years ago. A study funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health says Black teens in the U.S., especially females, may be at high risk for attempting suicide even if they have never been diagnosed with a mental disorder. The pressure on members of the LGBTQ+ community also influences suicide rates: in 2021, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System reported that 20 percent of LGBQ+ high school students attempted suicide in the past year—nearly three times the rest of students.
Suicide is tragic at any age. Among all age groups, young American adolescents (aged 10 to 14) have by far the lowest suicide rates (2.8 per 100,000), while people aged 15 to 24 have the second lowest (14.2 per 100,000). Suicide rates are highest among people over 85 (20.0 per 100,000), followed by those aged 75 to 84 and aged 25 to 34 (18.4 per 100,000), according to the CDC. The dramatic rise in teen suicides parallels rises in all age groups, testifying to a mental health crisis at all age levels.
Out of every five people who take their own lives, four are likely to be male. Females are twice as likely to attempt suicide, but males are the ones who complete their attempts. The suicide rate among males is four times higher than among females. Males tend to use more violent methods, like shooting themselves, than women do. Women often use pills, which makes them more likely to be found in time and saved. Recently, many teenage girls who have died by suicide have used violent methods like guns. According to the CDC, the most common methods used in suicides of young people include firearms (53 percent), suffocation (27 percent), and poisoning (12 percent).
In Canada, a survey conducted by the First Nations Information Governance Centre reported that nearly a quarter of First Nations adults contemplated suicide at some point in their lives—more than two-and-a-half times the national average. Among those aged 15 to 24, the rate among First Nations youth was five to six times higher than non-First Nations youth, according to the Canadian Institute of Health.
The rate of suicide for teens may even be higher than reported. Automobile crashes account for the leading cause of death for fifteen- to nineteen-year-olds. Law enforcement officials might look at a car crash of a single teenage driver, see no skid marks, and put down the cause as “accident.” In fact, these car crashes could be “autocides” the term for suicide by car crash.
Teen suicide rates have climbed slightly in recent years. Experts suggest that the fear of antidepressants—and their possible side effect of causing suicidal thoughts—may have curtailed use of the drugs. They say that fear of these drugs may ironically lead more teens to suffer from severe depression and die by suicide. In addition, an increase in bullying and similar behaviors might be contributing to higher rates of teen suicide.
As suicide rates have risen over the past two decades, one group has seen a shocking increase. According to the CDC, suicides among females age 10 to 14 more than doubled between 2009 and 2019, from 0.9 deaths per 100,000 in 2009 to 2.0 in 2019. Since then, the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other stressors have led to further declines in mental health, especially among young females. According to a 2022 report from the CDC, 37 percent of high school students reported experiencing a decline in their mental health in 2021. About half (49 percent) of females reported poor mental health, double what high school males reported (24 percent). In 2021, 10 percent of female high school students attempted suicide, while 30 percent seriously considered it.
The transition into adulthood can be difficult. As an adolescent, you are a part of a particularly vulnerable group that can encounter pressure from your family and peer groups. Some problems you may face include family breakdown, sexuality, body imagery (anorexia, bulimia, obesity), and social, school, and peer pressures. These problems could lead to a state of depression, which is the most common cause of suicide.
Teens already have a difficult time coping with the demands of school, family, and friends – but what if you add poverty into the mix? The pressure is too much for some teens, and a joint study from Canada’s Université de Montréal and Tufts University concluded that teens from poorer communities are four times as likely to die by suicide than their peers from wealthier neighborhoods.
The Good News
In response to the current increase in suicide attempts among teens, educators and health officials have made efforts to increase awareness of the problem and provide services for those at risk. And in places where efforts have increased, suicide rates have dropped. Among the Apache Indians of Arizona, for example, the teen suicide rate in 2006 was thirteen times the national average. But tribal leaders instituted prevention programs with the help of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health and by 2012, the suicide rate had dropped by 40 percent. Public awareness and social services work.
Tolerance helps too. LGBTQ+ youth with supportive families are eight times less likely to attempt suicide than those with families that reject them. With the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States and increases in anti-bullying programs in schools, suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth have declined to an all-time low. A 2017 study published in JAMA Pediatrics reported that “same-sex marriage policies were associated with a 7% reduction in the proportion of all high school students reporting a suicide attempt within the past year. The effect was concentrated among adolescents who were sexual minorities.”
Greater public awareness about the tragedy of suicide has also helped. For example, since 2015 the Veterans Suicide Awareness Project, founded by a survivor of suicide, has held annual awareness marches to focus public attention on the challenges veterans face after returning from traumatic military conflicts. Among veterans and others, reducing the stigma of mental health and mental illness by publicizing how common it is, allows those at risk to seek the help they need.
13 Reasons Why
Not all publicity is good publicity, however. In 2017, Netflix launched the series 13 Reasons Why. Produced by Selena Gomez, the show was extremely popular among teens. The series was based on the best-selling book of the same name, but treats the topic of teen suicide very differently. Like the book, the movie centers on the suicide of a fictional high school student named Hannah, who leaves behind tapes to explain the reasons for her suicide. But while the book does not focus on Hannah’s actual suicide, only saying that she “swallowed a handful of pills” the movie is graphic in portraying her suicide and the grief that it causes to her friends and family.
Producer Gomez stated that the show started a dialogue about suicide and mental health. Its brutal honesty, she said, “opened the door for people to actually accept what’s happening and actually go and change it.” Defenders of 13 Reasons Why pointed out that the show accurately portrayed the pressures that teens experience at school—pressures that parents might minimize, overlook, or not even know about.
But leading mental health experts and school psychologists warned about the dangers of the series. They argued that the way the show handled the topic of suicide goes against many of the basic recommendations of suicide prevention. The show, they argued, portrays Hannah’s suicide in such detail that it gives vulnerable teens a blueprint for copying Hannah’s example. By focusing on the grief of family and friends, and the lessons they learn from Hannah’s suicide, 13 Reasons Why presents suicide as a force for good, not as a tragedy. And in the end, Hannah doesn’t get to see any of that. 13 Reasons Why may have helped start conversations about suicide among teens, but mental health experts argue that it offered no options or alternatives for Hannah—and for the real teens who watched the show. Netflix ended the series after four seasons in 2020, but it is still available to stream on the platform.
Resources do exist for teens contemplating suicide: many of them are listed in the Resources section of this article. And there are more positive stories, like Becca’s Story in this article, that allow teens to imagine better outcomes to their lives.