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Chris Scott

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What can we do about the constant rise of depression and suicide in young adults?

I am seventeen years of age and have recently come out of a large stage of my life where I dealt with a lot of depression. I have dealt with and still deal with people in high school (and even middle school in some cases) that deal with depression every single day and never have anyone that they talk to about their problems.

I have known people that have committed suicide from the weight of depression upon their shoulders throughout their lives, and have heard about these cases all over the world. I, myself, have been driven to the point where I thought that the only way out of my depression was by suicide because there was nothing to help me.

I want to know your opinions and ideas on the subject of depression and suicide in young adults today and what we can do to prevent these problems in the future. Thanks for listening!

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Topics: Teenagers depression help the children psychology suicide
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  • M ER

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    Oct 19 2011: On the subject of suicide. I have read that suicide is very much a cultural thing and can be spurred on by the culture around us. Suicides can come in waves. It does not appear to be a natural thing to do, since the idea must be brought in from elsewhere before suicides take place. A song can inspire suicide, a book, or the suicide of a famous person (these copycat suicides have been prevented by an immediate negative message from a person close to the victim).
    Suicide is more prevalent in cultures where it is considered brave and honorable and where it is considered "an escape" from the harshness of your reality. Suicide can be spurred on by the medias positive portrayal of a suicide story and dampened by a negative one. Suicide, therefore, is caused in part by our discussion of it. There is also something called "the suicide impulse" where a person can suddenly decide that he/she wants to commit suicide and within seconds attempts to, without necessarily being depressed or ever have given it much thought.
    There are also many people that are not serious about their suicide attempt, but are hoping to be found and saved before they die. This is a dangerous game and I believe feeds on our idea that suicide is the ultimate "cry for help" and expresses better than anything the anguish we are going through. I think there should not be a discussion of suicide in our society and if there is then a negative one, for this is one problem in which the solution does not lie in understanding it. This however is difficult and dangerous to do, for we cannot ignore the people that are in danger of committing suicide and we should do everything in our power to help them overcome the problems that are the real cause behind their drastic measures.

    • Mark Meijer 100+

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      Oct 19 2011: One thing is for sure: Stigmatizing anything, will never produce any desirable results. You already know this to be true for sex and relationships. I would argue the same is true for the topic of suicide. The trigger for suicide is not in the talking about it, or in the occurance of someone else's suicide, or in positive or negative media coverage. Those things in and of themselves don't cause suicide, but how those things are taken in by any particular individual is what triggers a reaction to it.

      So again we come back to believing our own thoughts about something. If the media puts suicide in a positive light, some people take that as truth. But obviously whatever the media says about suicide can never change any inherent reality of suicide. Suicide exists whether the media covers it or not. All the media can change is someone's beliefs about it. Now you suggest that we eliminate everything that can change someone's beliefs about suicide. That's a guaranteed failure, I hope you can see that.

      It's like imposing peace on the world through force of arms. It can never work, the peace will not be peace, it will at best be a facade of peace, and a temporary one at that. It does not address the core issue. Same thing with suicide, it can't be eliminated by forcing out slanted stories about it. That's only a facade, and does not address any core issues. So this leaves the problem unaddressed while believing them to be addressed. That's even more dangerous.

      • M ER

        • +1
        Oct 19 2011: I realize that, and I hoped that I made that clear in the end of my comment:
        "we cannot ignore the people that are in danger of committing suicide and we should do everything in our power to help them overcome the problems that are the real cause behind their drastic measures."
        I only wanted to point out the effect discussions about suicide can have on actual suicide rates.

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