Facts About Adolescent Suicide

Suicide is shocking and devastating for family and loved ones and takes many victims each year. It remains the third leading cause of death with adolescents between the ages of 10 to 18 years old and is the second leading cause among college aged youth.

According to a recent blog, autopsy studies also show that nearly 25 percent of those adolescents had consumed drugs or alcohol at their time of death. If you know someone who needs help or the person is you, there are resources that can help.

You can always go to the ER at the nearest hospital or go online to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Typically, most all youth who do commit suicide had some type of a psychiatric disorder that could have been diagnosed at the time of their death.

In the U.S. alone, almost one in every five students in high school has considered suicide in the last year. There are also about 25 attempted suicides for every one that results in death.

Suicide related behaviors account for the greatest amount of ER visits and psychiatric admits in the hospital setting. Some of these behaviors include burning and cutting/reopening previous wounds, although suicide with firearms used to be the main method for all age groups.

Today, adolescents and children are using more pills, hangings or asphyxiation in suicide attempts. Dr. Miller, with Therapy Soup says younger youth often don’t understand the more abstract concept of death such as its permanence.

Miller adds that while many suicidal victims are in fact depressed many of them are not "clinically" depressed and there are other disorders that are associated with their suicide attempts in youth such as anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders or substance abuse issues.