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Sunday, December 16, 2007

Fearing failures giving them suicidal tendencies.

Teens are unable to face challenges in life and fearing failures giving them suicidal tendencies.

Life is without sympathies and feelings, it’s all set goals are ruining the careers of teens, making them more suicide prone and generating hatred towards their relatives and peers during this huge change of socio-economic growth of man kind at 21st century. Few are unable to accept taking these changes in a positive way, while facing huge ignorance and abundance in their childhood. Seeing their parents chasing another mergers or acquisitions, or giving lectures to management houses, while unable to manage home front giving parental cares. The frustrations of simple failure is throwing them in the desperation and separating them from the positive aspects of life. A simple failure is causing them killing others and killing themselves. Maybe, they’re getting rid of their problematic life, but the people they’re leaving behind, are they changing with those enormous losses of these young talents?

The recent school massacres, shooting at schools, homicidal tendencies are growing day by day. If we look globally, we can see the kids are killing themselves and killing others as well. Psychologists are suggesting Bipolar disorders are putting them taking such drastic decisions. Socialists are saying, increasing pressures from parents, schools, competition from peers are forcing them to the dead end of life, where they’re not only killing their peers, they’re also taking their own lives.

The suicide note of a young man named Adam Krigger is given below:

The thing that only happens to other people happened to Creta Kunz on a dark November night six years ago. That's when the police knocked on her door and told her that her son Philip was dead. She couldn't believe it. Perhaps there was a mistake? No, there was no mistake. Was it all just a very bad dream? He was at the house just yesterday — how could he be dead? Suicide, said the officer: He killed himself. Right there, the earth stopped turning. When the planet picked up speed again a few minutes later, Kunz felt more lost than she'd ever felt in her entire life. And she couldn't imagine how she would live through the overwhelming feelings of guilt, sadness, grief and powerlessness.

Among 15-to-24-year-olds, suicide was the second leading cause of death (18.5 percent) in the time period from 1997 to 2001, topped only by unintentional injuries such as car accidents (44.1 percent).

Statistics, which are all provided by the Spokane Regional Health District, are based on hospitalizations. Many suicide attempts don't put people in the hospital or even in the emergency room, and therefore are never counted.

No one knows exactly how many suicide attempts have been interrupted at the last minute, but we do know that regardless of age or circumstances, the impact someone's suicide has on friends and family is devastating. Survivors are often riddled with guilt, left to second-guess their own actions or lack thereof.

“I don't think we were really aware of how badly depressed he was. I mean, his life situation was such that I didn't find it surprising that he was depressed," says Kunz. "His viewpoint was that he felt like he was about to turn 30 and his life had gone nowhere. If only we had been more aware of some of the signs."

Signs of change -- People who consider committing suicide often change behaviour in several ways, but there are no official top 10 signs of suicidal behaviour. Especially with teenagers, it can be difficult to get a feel for behaviour change because — as all parents know — teens often change a certain behaviour one day, just to change it back the next.

If your teen usually spends 18 hours sleeping in her room, then that's not necessarily a sign that she is suicidal — but if she all of a sudden gets by on six hours of sleep, experts say that could be an indicator that something is up. Same goes for eating: If a teen who usually eats a lot stops eating, or someone who's very diet-conscious starts gorging on pizza every night, that can be an indicator as well.

In other words, it's not the behaviour itself that indicates suicidal tendencies — it's the change in behaviour one should be aware off.

Why? -- It's a myth that one specific event or issue leads a person to committing suicide, and this is especially true for teens. Not only are teens living through a period of life where very fundamental things such as their bodies, their voices and their interests change dramatically, they are also dealing with an increasingly complex social world.

Belonging to the "right" group of friends, owning the "right" sneakers, listening to the "right" music, trying to fit in — these are all issues that may seem trivial to adults, but can be very difficult to deal with for some teens. And it can be difficult to keep perspective or to continue to have faith in the future, while you are trying to define your own identity.

It's also a mistake to believe that they kill themselves because they want to die.

Ounce of Prevention -- Among mental health professionals, educators and doctors there is widespread agreement that suicide is preventable, yet the suicide rates seem to indicate that what's being done today isn't very successful. Public health programs and initiatives are stretched thin by the usual culprit: lack of funding. But one of the main reasons suicide persists is a lack of openness and willingness to simply talk about the problem.

Lori Hansen started the group Survivors of a Loved One's Suicide (SOS) after her 25-year-old son killed himself in 1988.

A growing number of U.S. schools are screening teenagers for suicidal tendencies or signs of mental illness, triggering a debate between those who seek to reduce the toll of youthful suicides and others who say the tests are unreliable and intrude on family privacy.

The trend is being aggressively promoted by those who say screening can reduce the tragedy of the more than 1,700 suicides committed by children and adolescents each year in the United States. Many of the most passionate supporters have lost children to suicide -- among them Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), whose son Garrett died in 2003.

One screening program, TeenScreen, developed by Columbia University, has been administered to more than 150,000 children in 42 states and the District. The state of New York plans to start screening 400,000 children a year, and the federal government is directing tens of millions of dollars to expand screening nationwide.

Use of the psychological evaluations is growing even though there is little hard evidence that they prevent suicides. A panel of government experts concluded two years ago that the evidence to justify suicide screening was weak and that such programs, although well intentioned, had potential adverse consequences.

The growing use of screening has coincided with a rapid increase in the number of youngsters being prescribed powerful antipsychotic medications such as Risperdal and Zyprexa that have not been specifically approved for use by children. There was a fivefold increase in the use of these drugs in children between 1993 and 2002, according to one analysis published this month in the Archives of General Psychiatry, and a 73 percent increase in such prescriptions between 2001 and 2005, according to Medco, a firm that manages pharmacy benefits.

Garrett Smith died one day shy of his 22nd birthday. He had seen a psychiatrist shortly before he committed suicide and was given a prescription for an antidepressant. Sen. Smith said the family did not know whether Garrett took the medication. Later, Smith said, several experts concluded that Garrett probably had bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depression. Antidepressants are not recommended for this condition, and Smith said his son had probably concealed his symptoms during his single visit with the psychiatrist. Still, he said, if the family had known that Garrett had bipolar disorder, they could have acted years earlier.

Among those younger than 20, the suicide rate is 2.14 per 100,000, a fraction of the 14.6 per 100,000 rate for those older than 50. But national surveys suggest that about 1 in 12 high school students tries to harm himself or herself each year with an eye to committing suicide.

Because suicide victims often turn out to have had mental disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder, David Shaffer of Columbia University, who developed the TeenScreen questionnaire, and other specialists say identifying and treating youngsters with such disorders may reduce the number of suicides. Prevention is always better than cure.

Is it a fact that, we’ll have the next generation who are paranoids with their fear of facing life from the positive angle or getting failed in life and we’re presenting them a life which is having only the sets of goals without love and affections?

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

The age of competition is taking a heavey toll on Young generations. Parents often drive the kids to perfection and achieve the success which the parents failed to achieve , and think that by providing resources success can be achieved. As parents of young kids, I strongly feel that while some sort of healthy pressure is OK, but we must desist from driving the kids. Let them choose whats good for them and what they excel. Life is full of opportunity and given the right amount of chance, the kids will also succeed in what they opt for.

Anonymous said...

I disagree. If a child is taught from a young age that both success and failure is a natural part of life and that both can be learning experiences they will not be prone to suicide. The problem is some children are never taught, some are always pushed too hard and nothing they do meets with their parent’s approval. Still others are always belittled and told they will never amount to anything.

Many of these kids are never taught to value life. They themselves do not feel valued. However, that is NOT an excuse to kill others and then kill themselves. That is a true act of cowardice. They can kill themselves but there is no way to blame anyone but them when they take another persons life.

Teen years were tough on every one of us, big damn deal. There is not a person alive that didn’t come from a dysfunctional family in one way or another. These are excuses we make for criminal acts. These people whether teens or adults need to be taught from birth the difference between right and wrong.

Parents need to quit standing by trying to coddle them and supplying them with every “thing” they “want” and start supplying them with some guidance and appreciation for human life. Children need to know they are loved and valued and that there are consequences for their actions. Instead society as a whole and the media goes lout of their way to make up excuses for why this stuff happens. It happens because they were never taught from the proper age. People cannot wait until a kid is 12 or older to start teaching them. That must begin at birth.

How can failure in their careers in their teens cause them to commit suicide? They’re teenagers they don’t have careers. Bottom line the article is simply making more excuses for why people do these things and giving them yet another way to get by with murder. Bring a child up knowing how to own the responsibility for their actions and how to survive the consequences – that’s what they need. The media and parents already want to blame everyone else, we don’t need to give them more excuses.

Weak people kill and commit suicide, let’s raise our kids to be strong of self and of character and stop feeling sorry for bad seeds.

Sheilah

Anonymous said...

Obviously core subjects that are essential to progress in life should be taught in school. However, I think schools should cover more topics relevant to life and social skills. Life can be very tough and looking after our mental health is important. Education would also help reduce the stigma that surrounds mental health issues and encourage more people to give help (and seek help).

I have attached a link to Stamp Out Suicide! and another relevant link.
http://www.stampoutsuicide.org.uk

Anonymous said...

I wish to stress one element in Sheilah's comment, which is the core of the matter in my opinion: Giving kids what they "want", not what they "need".

Parents very often think 'being there for their children' means giving them everything they ask for, instead of being physically there to provide guidance. In bringing up children you need reward as much as punishment, yet the later of these seems to become a lost art. We are now so set up that both father and mother must work a full time job, that having children is seen as a materialistic requirement, not as an obligation to prepare these kids for life.

The parents that are there for their children raise better children than the children that exist for their parents turn out to be.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dibyendu,

What you state looks true. Life is becomming mechanical and without sympathies and targets are ruining the careers of teenagers. There is a serious concern you have addressed.

You must take a look at a natural life cycle of mosquito or a fly or a dog living in a natural habitat. Survival is really difficult.

We are at some level animals so, why is it that we are unable to accept this difficulty? If we are special why are we facing difficulty in survival?

The rule is; survival of the fittest. We must work to make our teenagers fit, mentally physically and emotionally. We can empower them and then pray that they live a good successful life.

Also, we have to set standards. We have to have sympathy and understanding and set an example that good life is possible.

Hope I have helped you. Have a great day and live a glorious life.

Prashant.

Anonymous said...

The recent school shooting is a disaster. Teenage is a vulnerable stage, due to the combination of career-shaping-major-events pressure, as well as mother nature's hormone effects. A good way to treat the kids is with unconditional love. So that whatever happens, even if the son/daughter faces the ultimate failure in certain circumstances (like a particular exam day, or an afternoon sport event), (s)he would/should know that (s)he can come back to the parents and not face anything but love and total acceptance of the situation. Inspiring success and ambition is objective #2. Objective #1 should always be live and live well.

Sad reality is while one can control his/her own kid's emotional IQ, if another kid is out of balance and (s)he goes around with an AK47 shooting, then thats beyond the control. This is why choosing a good school and good social environment for your children is critical. "Good" does not mean most wealthy or most elite status, necessarily. In fact, often too rich or too poor are both to be avoided -- a balanced mid-point may be an wise option.

Just my 2c. Regards.

Anonymous said...

One should not leap to conclusions about trends based on attention grabbing incidents. I have no doubt that teenagers face pressures; they always have. But the suicide and homicide rate today are only slightly higher than they were in 1973. There was a dramatic increase in both that peaked in 1993. Since then the rates have declined sharply.

So do not extrapolate from isolated incidents. The facts say that the situation was far worse 14 years ago.

I do not mean to suggest that we do not continue to examine as a society and as parents how we can improve the job that we are doing. Troubled teenagers cause many problems for themselves and others even without such dramatic demonstrations as school shootings. The more we can do to help every child, the better off we all are.

Links:
http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/70ViolentDeath.cfm

Anonymous said...

Yes, there are challenges; there is very high (cut-throat) competition and pressure to perform and succeed. When there are challenges and competition…there is also fear of failure but tendency to move towards crime or to commit suicide is never an excuse.
It is not only the “Fear of Failures” but also the atmosphere at home and Values, Ethics & Principles of family that are forcing children to do what they are doing.

Regards
Sanjeev

Anonymous said...

Hi Dibyendu,

As mentioned in previous responses dealing with success as well as failure is part of growing up. We all did it while learning the complex process of standing and walking! This same process should continue as a norm, fall on your butt or face, brush yourself off and give it another try hey you may cry a little for sympathies but that is about it.
What is driving the process of suicide and killing is the lack of understanding of human relationships and interdependence. Kids play these stupid games where they are trained to react instinctively and instantly to kill, movies also show the same processes. Now at times they exchange reality with gaming and off themselves or somebody else.
The media should never mention the identity of killer so as to give them notoriety as this just makes the problems of drifting from fantasy to reality worst.


Best Regards,
Aneal M

Anonymous said...

We all understand your standpoint which is more or less based on educational settings in global school systems.

However the situation is much more easy to resolve if you might have a look at the Switzerland models. There children have a close connection to nature and the personal settings in their daily schedules of life.

Parents are heavily involved in the school and university processes and have to take part as an active role. The children or students know from the very first beginning that a network of positive control measures play a strong part in the system which offers the joy of loving and giving as well. Therefore do not wonder if children have to milk cows or to cut grass in the mountains as an active tool for the recovery of healthier environmental or natural ecological programs which are salient.

Yours faithfully

UK

Anonymous said...

Hi Dibyendu... nothing personal - but your "conclusions" are not valid, and to focus on the few "misfits" who commit crimes in order to draw attention to their "plight in life" says nothing about the overwhelming majority of young people who are quite busy trying to live their lives as best as they can, usually with one or more parents content to "leave them alone" as they grow-up on their own".

It is true, that in this day and age, more and more people, young and old are isolated in their own little mental worlds and slowly losing sight of what the real vales and good works are.

It is also wrong to suggest that not all people who commit suicide "don't want to die"... if not, then what do they expect - to just cross-over for a minute, check the view and then come back and write about it in a chat room?

Nonsense, people who have come as far away from "reality" so as to wish to leave it altogether, are very sad indeed, but the only answer is for more of us to "pay attention".... really pay attention- to everyone around us, and to encourage life, love and laughter at every turn.

As for "fearing to fail"... it is an old excuse and the only thing to fear is the fear itself. I suggest that more people do something "on the playing field", rather than sit on the sidelines and moan about the way the game is going. :-) MB

Anonymous said...

I agree. Fear, uncertainty and doubt are powerful motivators. That is where your intelligence is supposed to kick in and tell you the truth.

I disagree that life is dealing this generation of people a bad hand and poor them.

What is lacking is from within, not without. It is painstaking and sometimes difficult to learn and master coping skills, yet, the majority of people do. Everyone who took the time to respond to this question has those skills.

For this specific generation of people, (The Millenials) it has been done for them most of their lives, so they have no idea how to cope or resolve issues on their own. So, in the normal 3 year old mentality, they lash out with the fastest, quickest, easiest method they can find. Violence, towards themselves or others. The Millenials have many issues, all of which can be corrected.

Rather than making excuses for them and tolerating the poor performance and bad behavior, reach out and teach them! To me, that is the only solution.

Eileen

Anonymous said...

Life is becoming - "mechanical, routine, without feeling, and boring"...

Oh, what a bleeding heart!

Life is so tough sitting in a classroom, with or without a computer, getting at-least 2 square meals a days. Having parents real, step, or foster who provide clothes and a roof over your head. No one appreciates me... My how hard it is to survive in the 21st century!

Jeez, the cavemen had it so good - all they did was go camping in the wild, have great adventures hunting, if they they didn't get killed by becoming the prey! Maybe ate once a day which was a great way of dieting! The caveman didn't have to worry about having braces and looking like a geek, as most of their teeth would have rotted away if they lived long enough. Didn't have to worry about having a family, career, or living too long because life expectancy was only 16-18 years. The caveman didn't have to worry about a mortgage, health insurance, car payment, rising gas prices, and global warming! There was no such thing as suicide as all it took was a walk in the jungle, staying alive itself was the hard part!

How times have changed for the worse! Don't we all wish we could go back to the - 'good old days'?

Ravi

Anonymous said...

Dibyendu;

Sorry my opinion is short and myopic, but there are those in society and life that choose the path of less resistance and greatest evil to avoid having to be a contributor or a worker or a participator or anything else as they are looking for and easy hand shake to life ... it has been that way for not recent vintage but for decades. Those that escape with Suicide do so for the easy out of either punishing someone they think will suffer or not having to deal with the issues around them ... again nothing new.

What is required is a simple truth of caring for each other as much as possible and being a firm post in the sand of life that draws a line of good and bad - evil and right - and love an hate ... simple truths that don't change with time nor semantics.

My best regards, Vernon C./Vpc

Anonymous said...

I agree totally with Sheilah, it is up to us as parents to teach at a young age that life is a roller coaster ride with many ups, downs and twists. We need to instill a coping mechanisum into our kids some you win and some you lose. I have to children and that what I'm doing why they should win at simple things like board games because they are kids. Watch them win for real is far more rewarding then letting them win and they know you have let them win. Each Sunday we play board games and I have never let them win, but I have taught them how to lose.

With that they have taken this into their daily life and when they come home from school and failed at a task they can deal with it and when the excel/win they can also deal with that. It’s a fine balance and to take your own life is the coward’s way and leaves large holes in families.

We as parents need to teach our kids that society does matter and they hold the key to a better society, truly we as parents have to stop looking for excuses and make plans to help our Children become a functional member of society.

In essence watch, listen, learn and interact with your children and mostly discuss openly all their fears. Children are amazing at coping with life, so let them learn and sometimes let the lesson be hard.
This comes from experience, as a child I was very ill (seriously) and needed 2 life saving operations before the age of 12. Now my parents had 2 choices to make wrap me up and never let me live or let me live and thank god they chose the latter. Within 3 years I was rock climbing, canoeing and pot-holing to name a few projects, also had a full sports calendar with football and athletics. This has made me a stronger person and I have the ability to understand life offers hard lessons, but the human can adapt and change, it’s when we stop adapting and changing we have problems……..

Anonymous said...

Don't u know failures are stepping stones for success(an age old and proven mantra)? Can't u remember Abraham Lincoln who faced the worst failures in his life from 16 to 51 only to become President of US later. There are numerous known examples and countless examples that have not appeared in the media.

Emotional management is key to management of failures. i have seen number of guys who failed in SSLC(School Final) woke up and made their way to success later on and doing extremely well. Suicide for failure is a "Permanent decision for a Temporary problem". Youngsters need to understand this and schools must teach them emotional management.

If one thinks of a bigger problem than what he or she is facing, then that problem would become manageable. That is positive attitude.
K SHANKAR

Anonymous said...

Teen angst is not a new thing. Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, Rebel Without a Cause are all artistic expressions of teen fears, losses, failures and the violence or suicides that ensue.

Even in my high school, in the late 60's and early 70's we had classmates who committed suicide, for no apparent reason to the rest of us.

The issue from my perspective is whether or not there are strong relationships and open communication between the teens and their parents. My 3 daughters talk to me about much of their lives, their experiences and their frustrations. I am fairly comfortable with the fact that no matter what fears or failures my girls may experience they know they can talk to me about them and I will support them.

My step-son is another story. He has been an isolated sullen child since starting kindergarten. He has been the butt of jokes, picked on by his peers and has gotten in trouble since pre-school. As an only child until my wife and I married almost 11 years ago, my wife has dediacted herself to break him out of his isolation and to inspire him to do something with his life. He has nearly flunked out of school more than once and as a result he is no longer on the path to college, even though he has free tuition available to him as I work for a great local university.

Since he has taken himself off the path to college and a professional career my wife enrolled him in a vocational program for his last two years in high school. I wish I could say this has made a difference.

He has been through counselling, as well as anti-depressives and nothing has made any difference.

I said the main difference is strong relationships and open communication between teens and their parents. I really do believe this is true, I just cannot tell you how to get there with some teens, my stepson included.

Anonymous said...

If our children fear failure then we've failed as parents. Failure is part of life. It's a learned skill, just like any other, and you get it by experience.

I read something recently (can't recall the author now) where a study was done comparing brilliant successes and average people. Who do you think failed more often? Why, the brilliant successes did. It turns out that successful people are successful because they try more often, and more different things, not because they always succeed the first time.

In other words, brilliant successes were failures first, most of the time, and continued to fail throughout their careers. Nobody bats a thousand, simple as that.

So if our kids are afraid to fail, they're completely unprepared to succeed because they're unprepared to TRY. The failure is not with the challenges they're presented with, or the competition; the failure is that we haven't taught our kids that failure isn't a crime, and it isn't the end of the world. We haven't taught them to keep trying and to keep getting back up when they're knocked down, so they don't know that they can.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dibyendu,

Yes i agree with point raised by you.There are lot factors involving Teens to make such drastic move in their life, competition from peers,siblings,trying to impress girl, pressure from parents, school,media, even the friend circle can drive teens to get into anti-social acts for fun.

Parents should know that every kid is unique and should develop them accordingly, it is not necessary that every kid should score first rank, he/she may be good in some other domain which can be nourished with good support.

If there is friendly environment back home because it is the family/home which will give the foundation of good behavior/culture/manners, teens will not get into any anti social acts, reason they have ample amount of freedom back home, they are not feared of sharing their problems with their parents and know that if something goes wrong parents are there to support and guide them to avoid such mistakes in future.

Schools are second home for kids/teens, teachers should not involved into favoritism among the kids, probably they should be so strong to understand every kids strength and weakness and can help accordingly, which i believe is not happening

Anonymous said...

It's interesting those who say that being harder and not coddling children is the answer ...

Mainly because, if you look at the Eric Harris' and Dylan Kebold's (Columbine) of this world - they weren't coddled ... quite the opposite in fact ... they were ignored by their parents.

I disagree, too, that it's a lack of association that causes these things.

In fact, it's too much association.

It's being backed into a corner - whether that's by teachers, parents, peers - and feeling like there's no way out. Like no matter what you do it's going to keep happening - like you will lose for the rest of your life no matter how hard you try, no matter what you do.

It's the same thing that pushes ADULTS over the line. The same reason people lose it and go postal.

It particularly annoys me when people get on their high horse and claim that it's the parenting that's the problem. On many occasions, it's turned out that these kids came from good families where they were taught values and responsibilities. Families just like yours. In these cases, it was something else ... something the parents didn't know about and couldn't deal with - that caused the issue.

Children face the same problems today that they always have - bullying, sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal and emotional abuse. To say "It was no different in my day" is to turn a blind eye to the actual problem - "Well, I didn't do it so you should just get over it". Spurious logic that gets us nowhere.

Anonymous said...

Life is becoming - "mechanical, routine, without feeling, and boring"...

Oh, what a bleeding heart!

Life is so tough sitting in a classroom, with or without a computer, getting at-least 2 square meals a days. Having parents real, step, or foster who provide clothes and a roof over your head. No one appreciates me... My how hard it is to survive in the 21st century!

Jeez, the cavemen had it so good - all they did was go camping in the wild, have great adventures hunting, if they they didn't get killed by becoming the prey! Maybe ate once a day which was a great way of dieting! The caveman didn't have to worry about having braces and looking like a geek, as most of their teeth would have rotted away if they lived long enough. Didn't have to worry about having a family, career, or living too long because life expectancy was only 16-18 years. The caveman didn't have to worry about a mortgage, health insurance, car payment, rising gas prices, and global warming! There was no such thing as suicide as all it took was a walk in the jungle, staying alive itself was the hard part!

How times have changed for the worse! Don't we all wish we could go back to the - 'good old days'?

Ravi

Anonymous said...

I just want to add one comment, actually a fact: the most developed countries have the highest suicidal rates. Poor countries and countries that were more often in wars have lower suicide rates. Maybe it has to do something with adrenalin and fight for survival which supresses depression. Competition itself just to prove yourself is not big enough factor to cause such an adrenalin as when you really have to struggle to survive. I think those are all natural mechanisms.... If animals in the wild world, for example, are too happy, having enough food from the lower level in the food chain it means that some natural balance is disturbed and the nature will find the way to bring the balance back maybe by causing some suicidal thoughts in these happy animals....

To correct myself, in the animal world that probably wouldn't happen because those "happy animals" would always have some other animals that are above them in the food chain, so those ones would take care of the imbalance. But since human beings don't have anybody above them in the food chain, the only way nature could deal with it is by causing some suicidal or killing each other thoughts ... I might be wrong, these speculations are all based on this simple fact that suicide rate is more common in developed countries.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dibyendu,

I guess we should try to understand what causes suicide. Looking for general factors, I would think the two major ones are a) mood disorders and b) "loss of self" or "loss of identity".

As for mood disorders, I'm thinking of manic/depressive, or bi-polar types of disorders. I've heard, and it makes sense to me, that suicide is unlikely in a manic phase (you feel too good) and in the depressive phase (you can't generate the energy to go through with it), but during a swing it can be pretty dangerous. But I can't say that I know where the apparent epidemic of mood disorders comes from--whether it's changes in diagnosis standards or changes in people, or both.

The "loss of self" explanation may be more helpful. Loss of identity means, basically, that your "self" as a composite of answers to the question, Who are you?, is compromised beyond recovery. High suicide among indigenous/native populations in Canada and US would be partially explained by loss of culture, hence difficulty with "who am I?" Very much higher rates among old men in modern cultures, that would seem to go with loss if identity/self (no job, no power, etc., all the things a man "is"). If so, I wonder what will happen to female suicide rates in the future as women become more identified with career and job. Generally, I'm less inclined to look for affective support and the like, and more inclined to look at changes or situations in a society that seem to destabilize or militate against a reliable sense of self.

Anonymous said...

This is happening only because society and upbringing make them think like that, if kids are made to under stand and face failure as part of success or stepping stone of success, this would never happen.

This is happening just because Parents are ambitious, they wish to achieve all dreams they are not able to get on. The failures, they fear, the materialistic attractions to satisfy the EGO.

If a child is brought-up with understanding of success and failure as part of life, a two extremes which always co-exist, there can not be only success or failure. If its only success is there then it would be worthless, the worth of success is there because failure is there, as the day and night extreme co-existing together. Truth and lie, sky & earth, yes & no, love and hate there are numerous day to day know facts if this basics are part of upbringing this would never happen.

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