Teenage suicide

Youth suicide is when a young person, generally categorized as someone below age 21, deliberately ends their own life. Rates of attempted and completed youth suicide in Western societies and other countries are high. Youth suicide attempts are more common among girls, but adolescent males are the ones who usually carry out suicide. Suicide rates in youths have nearly tripled between the 1960s and 1980s. For example, in Australia suicide is second only to motor vehicle accidents as it leading cause of death for people aged 15–25, and according to the National Institute for Mental Health, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens in the United States. Based on a survey done on American high school students, 16% reported considering suicide and 8% reported attempting suicide sometime within the 12 months before taking the survey. Between 1980 and 1994, the suicide rates of young black males doubled. American Indians and Alaska Natives commit suicide at a higher rate than any other ethnic group in the United States. In India, one-third of suicides are young people 15–29. In 2002, 154,000 suicides were recorded in India.

Adolescents show certain signs that indicate that they are suicidal. Suicidal teens tend to show a drastic change in their eating habits, sleeping habits, and personality. They also isolate themselves from friends and family and usually turn towards bad decision making such as showing violent behavior and abusing drugs and alcohol. An important sign that most of the suicidal youth shows is a loss of interest in many things.

According to research carried in by the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian in 2007, 39% of all youth suicides are completed by young people who have lost someone of influence or significance to them to suicide. The Commission terms this suicide contagion and makes several recommendations as to the importance of safeguarding young people and communities from suicide contagion.

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