Teen suicide

[Berkut]

There was an Atlantic article about 6 months back about suicides in the Palo Alto area.  The thesis was that children of high achievers have an impossible amount of pressure to compete.

Phew, so Berkut's kids are safe then.








Thank you, thank you, I will be here all week. Try the veal.

Come on, man, that's not cool.

No worries here, it is Languish, a little morbid fucking around is to be expected. Marty is all right (in this case and in my opinion, anyway).

[Berkut]

Apart from anything else, seems like the one obvious thing is to not have guns in the house.  If all else fails and your kid's suicide attempt catches you completely by surprise, at least give your kid a chance to fuck it up.

I actually do have a (moderately) secured pistol in the house, that is actually technically illegal, since it isn't registered in New York. I've been meaning to get rid of it for some time, actually, but am not really sure how to do so.

[Malthus]

What methods were used?

My almost completely fact-free speculation is that poor teenage impulse control combined with easy access to handguns makes suicide/murder more likely.

Remembering back to when I was a teen - you get dumped by a girl, or your best friend betrays you, or whatever, and you are - very temporarily - depressed enough for self-harm ... but an hour later you are watching TV and eating chips, and that shit is in the past. Keep kids from being able to self-harm easily in that hour, and suicide rates would go down.

[Monoriu]

In HK, the majority of suicides are done by jumping off from buildings.  Everybody lives in a high-rise building.  Or works in one. 

[Berkut]

What methods were used?

My almost completely fact-free speculation is that poor teenage impulse control combined with easy access to handguns makes suicide/murder more likely.

Remembering back to when I was a teen - you get dumped by a girl, or your best friend betrays you, or whatever, and you are - very temporarily - depressed enough for self-harm ... but an hour later you are watching TV and eating chips, and that shit is in the past. Keep kids from being able to self-harm easily in that hour, and suicide rates would go down.

In this case, both of them had lots of time for consideration.

One laid down on a local train track, and left a note.

The other left the house, walked to a local park, and hung himself.

The first kid I suspect there was some bullying involved, only because his parents asked for donations to be left to an anti-bullying foundation.

The second kid I don't know - well known local family, great kid, had a twin brother in fact, was by all accounts very well liked, popular, smart, athlete, etc., etc.

It is just baffling.

[Malthus]

What methods were used?

My almost completely fact-free speculation is that poor teenage impulse control combined with easy access to handguns makes suicide/murder more likely.

Remembering back to when I was a teen - you get dumped by a girl, or your best friend betrays you, or whatever, and you are - very temporarily - depressed enough for self-harm ... but an hour later you are watching TV and eating chips, and that shit is in the past. Keep kids from being able to self-harm easily in that hour, and suicide rates would go down.

In this case, both of them had lots of time for consideration.

One laid down on a local train track, and left a note.

The other left the house, walked to a local park, and hung himself.

The first kid I suspect there was some bullying involved, only because his parents asked for donations to be left to an anti-bullying foundation.

The second kid I don't know - well known local family, great kid, had a twin brother in fact, was by all accounts very well liked, popular, smart, athlete, etc., etc.

It is just baffling.

Well, that will teach me for fact-free speculating. 

Yeah, it is baffling.

[DGuller]

Actually, let's question the premise of the question.  Are teens actually more likely to commit suicide?  If a teen is going to die, it's probably going to be from either car accident or suicide, but is it because suicide so so common in those years, or because other causes of death start surpassing the suicide risk?  So far I haven't managed to find the answer on google, surprisingly, though I haven't looked for long.

[DGuller]

Found something:  http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html.  Doesn't seem like teen years are the exception.  If anything, they're a little lower.  It could be that since there are thousands of students in a school, you're probably going to hear about someone killing themselves in some year.

[Zanza]

When I went to highschool a guy in my year hanged himself and his younger sister found him. We all went to the burial. He hanged himself because of a girl in our class and she had a nervous breakdown at the burial. He had threatened it before to her and some friends. They all felt shit that they hadn't been able to stop him.

[DGuller]

In my high school, we had a couple of those dreadful morning announcements over the four years, but all of them were for car accident deaths.  In college, one day one of the TAs stabbed his ex-girlfriend in the chest.  She managed to get away and alert security, and he shot himself when SWAT pinned him in his office.

[Berkut]

Actually, let's question the premise of the question.  Are teens actually more likely to commit suicide?  If a teen is going to die, it's probably going to be from either car accident or suicide, but is it because suicide so so common in those years, or because other causes of death start surpassing the suicide risk?  So far I haven't managed to find the answer on google, surprisingly, though I haven't looked for long.

I wasn't aware there was a question or a premise, for that matter. But thanks?

[DGuller]

I assumed the premise was that there was something special about the teen years that makes one more prone to suicide, that it's a dangerous phase of growing up.

[Malthus]

I assumed the premise was that there was something special about the teen years that makes one more prone to suicide, that it's a dangerous phase of growing up.

I think the premise is more like 'it is very surprising and concerning, to adults (and particularly to parents), to see teens who outwardly appear to have everything going for them commit suicide'.

[DGuller]

I assumed the premise was that there was something special about the teen years that makes one more prone to suicide, that it's a dangerous phase of growing up.

I think the premise is more like 'it is very surprising and concerning, to adults (and particularly to parents), to see teens who outwardly appear to have everything going for them commit suicide'.

If that's the premise, then I misunderstood it.  But that goes for most suicides, I imagine, not just in one's teen years.

[Barrister]

I suspect that if we see unemployed, divorced, middle aged men commit suicide nobody finds it all that surprising.