Teen Depression that leads to Teen Suicide
...rld of psychiatrics. A man by the name of Emil Kraepelin worked day and night with the mentally ill. He was constantly noting their course, their ups and downs, their high and lows and mostly what symptoms they were showing and why. He mainly focused on 2 groups. Group 1 Group 1 were the patients who showed symptoms of Euphoria and who had excessive energy for some period of time, followed directly by depression and lack of energy. Group 2 Group 2 were the patients who suffered from strange symptoms such as hallucinations and or delusions. They were often the ones who became ill earlier on in life. After Kraepelin died his studies died down for a while longer. They came back in around the late 1960’s when a group of university students in St. Louis picked up on it once more. In the past 40 or 50 years the number of depressed adolescents and children has increased dramatically. Studies have shown that teen girls are more likely to be diagnosed with depression. Some things that have been associated with adolescent depression are, inconsistent parenting, having a stressful life at home or at school and a negative view of the world around them. Many people have tried to point the finger at the parents and blame them but its isn’t always the parents fault. The child or adolescent may be the source of the family stress. For example raising a hyperactive child or adolescent can be a very stressful situation. Therefore causing the point of stress, which will then lead to a stage of depression or that, could cause the child or adolescent to grow up with a low self-esteem in some cases. Childhood depression can also be hereditary; meaning that if a close relative suffered from childhood depression, then the child or adolescent has that chance as well and more than 50% of adolescents who had experienced depression at a young age have been said to have a recurrence within the following 7 years. Chances are that if you are a depressed adolescent, your parents are probably stressed. A very sad 30% of adolescents who are depressed seek medical attention while the other 70% struggle through their difficulties for what can last the rest of their lives (and chances are that their lives will be cut short because of suicide). Specialists say that because depression can and will sneak up on anyone, The best prevention is to watch out for the warning signs!!! Over 18 million Americans today are suffering from Depression and around 2 million of those are adolescents (or 1 in 9) Suicide The following are some of the warning signs of suicide. The person will start talking about suicide more and more often. They will feel Hopeless, Helpless and Worthless. Then the sad or depressive stage will often be followed by a more content almost happy stage. Why? Maybe because they feel that they have found the solution to all their problems or that they would be making everyone around them lives much better by just not being there. Then they might just lose all interest in everything. Nothing will appeal to them anymore. They will often visit the ones that they do love... if they can still feel that emotion. They will just be stopping by just to say hi and see how the wife and kids are doing. They will also make arrangements to make sure everything is taking care of, so that the ones they are leaving behind don’t have to look after things. They will also probably give most of their stuff away. Suicide is the 6th leading cause of death among adolescents of the shocking ages of 5-14 and it is also the 3rd leading cause of death for the adolescents worldwide. Over the past 30 years the number of suicides for adolescents between the ages of 15-24 has more that doubled. Even though that number keeps going up ... the Elderly still hold the highest number of suicides per year. An estimated 3 million adolescents ages 12-17 seriously consider killing themselves and a shocking 1/3 or 37% actually tried to commit suicide but failed in the year 2000. The saddest fact of all is that the kids who are actually thinking about suicide will try and talk to a friend or someone close to them, someone they trust but that person doesn’t always listen. There is over 5 million Americans living today that have at one time or another attempted to end their own lives, so its no wonder that Suicide is the 8th leading cause of death among the Americans. Last year (2002) in the US alone there was an estimated 80 deaths per day and well over 30 000 deaths per year because of suicide. That 30 000 deaths per year doubles the number of homicides per year. Meaning that you are twice as likely to be killed by yourself than to be killed by someone else. Out of those 80 people who take their own lives everyday approximately 19 are adolescents. That equals out be approximately 5 000 to 7 000 adolescents per year, but an estimated 25 000 to 30 000 adolescents will attempt suicide. A grand total 300 000 thousand people in the US alone will attempt suicide this year (2004) and most (over half) will not do enough damage to need hospital care but around 116 000 will end up being hospitalized and 110 000 will be discharged alive after about 10 days in the hospital and over $15 000.00 in hospital bills. One of the leading ways to commit suicide is to do so by using a firearm. Many of those who use a firearm may end up alive but with permanent brain damage. Many drug overdoses end up with the same outcome. In one case an 83 year old woman overdosed on her pills and lost consciousness but she did not die. Her daughter ended up suffocating her with a plastic bag. Over the past 30 years there has been a 300% increase on annual deaths worldwide and now an estimated 2000 take their own lives everyday worldwide. That equals out to be an estimated 80 per hour and just over 3 quarters of a million per year. Next year people say that there will be around 300 000 to 600 000 suicidal attempts and that half of those ...