Note: This article is not intended as a replacement for suicide counselling. If you or someone you know may be at risk of committing suicide, contact emergency services in your area immediately to get professional advice. Your local phone book will have the telephone numbers of distress lines and support agencies.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death – following motor vehicle accidents – among teenagers and young adults. On average, adolescents aged 10 to 19 years have an annual suicide rate of about 5 to 8 people for every 100,000 people. LGBTQ youth are more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Suicide rates are higher among Indigenous teens compared to those from other backgrounds.
The teen years are an anxious and unsettling period as youths face the difficulties of transition into adulthood. It is a period in life that is often confusing, leaving teens feeling isolated from family or peers.
Unfortunately, some may at one point or another perceive suicide as a permanent answer to problems that are more often than not just temporary. The self doubts, confusion, and pressures to succeed or conform can come at a high price for troubled adolescents.
Girls generally attempt suicide more often than boys, but boys are about 3 times more likely to die from the suicide attempt. This is because the methods that boys choose – often using firearms or hanging – are more lethal than those chosen by girls, namely drug overdoses or cutting themselves.
Many troubling and difficult situations can make a teen consider suicide. The same emotional states that make adults vulnerable to considering suicide also apply to adolescents. Those with good support networks (e.g., among family and peers, or extracurricular sport, social, or religious associations) are likely to have an outlet to help them deal with their feelings. Others without such networks are more susceptible during their emotional changes, and may feel that they’re all alone in times of trouble.
Apart from the normal pressures of teen life, specific circumstances can contribute to an adolescent’s consideration of suicide. It’s especially difficult when adolescents are confronted with problems that are out of their control, such as:
Many suicides are committed by people who are depressed. Depression is a mental health disorder. It causes chemical imbalances in the brain, which can lead to despondency, lethargy, or general apathy towards life. About one tenth of 15 to 24-year-olds in Canada could be diagnosed with depression, which makes coping with the extensive stresses of adolescence all the more difficult. Symptoms of depression in youth are often overlooked or passed off as being typical "adolescent turmoil."
Another serious problem that can lead teens to suicide – or aid in their plans to end their lives – is the easy access many of them have to firearms, drugs, alcohol, and motor vehicles. For the general population, about 30% of suicides involve firearms. Of all firearm-related deaths that occur, about 80% are suicides.
It is very important to seek professional help for the adolescent who may be suicidal. Guidance counsellors at schools or counsellors at crisis centres can help ensure that a distressed teen receives the needed assistance.
As the vast majority of adolescents who commit suicide have depressive symptoms, recognition and evaluation of clinical depression – a treatable medical condition – is essential. Physicians, including psychiatrists, provide both one-on-one counselling and medical treatment for the biochemical causes of depression.
Psychological counselling will help a teen develop effective mechanisms for coping with problems. These will be of value long after adolescence has ended, when a person has to face many of the stresses routinely encountered during adulthood.
Information for telephone counselling and suicide hotline services, available in most cities and regions, can be found in the telephone book and online. They offer counselling for a crisis situation, and can provide the immediate support an adolescent may need to survive a low point.
Another place to go during a crisis or in a suicidal state is the emergency ward of a hospital. Receiving the aid of trained professionals will help an adolescent deal with the emotional roller coaster that often leads to suicide. Short-term and long-term care can minimize the risk of committing suicide and help people find alternative solutions to coping with extreme distress.
All material copyright MediResource Inc. 1996 – 2026. Terms and conditions of use. The contents herein are for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Source: www.medbroadcast.com/condition/getcondition/Adolescent-Suicide
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