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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2016 13:06:36 GMT -5
Is it just my perception, or is the prevalence of this going up? Class size was huge back when I was in school (I think we were the first generation from the baby boomers), but not a single kid committed suicide in our district while I was in school.
Today, my son is going to a visitation for one of his classmates. The 4th kid in 5 years within a year or two of age of him to commit suicide and I know of at least one other attempted one, although I'm sure there were more of those I didn't know about, this just happened to be a cousin's stepdaughter.
This just seems so bizarre to me. I remember life being pretty sucky at times in middle school, but enough to take your own life at 13 or 14? Ugh. The two kids that I knew fairly well had a really good life too. One was our neighbor, huge house on every toy a 15 year old kid could want, 4 wheelers, snowmobiles, his parents paid a fortune so he could race stock cars on the weekend. Too much pressure on kids these days? Too much social media? Blame Facebook?
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 13:26:38 GMT -5
Drugs prescribed for ADHD, and overall prescription drugs in general shouldn't be overlooked in my opinion.
You have any idea if this boy was on any type prescriptions?
It's certainly a pity that a teenage kid gets in such a mental state that they see no other way out.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2016 13:34:16 GMT -5
I don't know anything about this kid as far as if he'd be on meds. He as a really charming nice kid and not what I'd consider hyper. In lots of clubs at school and popular. The neighbor boy was being treated for depression and my cousin's stepdaughter...well...her and her sister are kind of a mess. Been getting high and drunk since grade school. She took 250 ibuprofen. Put her in a coma for a couple days, and left her really sick, but she pulled through with no long term effects
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jan 16, 2016 13:43:19 GMT -5
I wonder if it's more because you really can't keep things like this quiet anymore.
Kids with ADD or ADHD really didn't stick around in classrooms like they do now. If you had a kid that was really disruptive, there weren't work arounds but the kid was removed from the classroom.
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 13:57:20 GMT -5
I wonder if it's more because you really can't keep things like this quiet anymore. Kids with ADD or ADHD really didn't stick around in classrooms like they do now. If you had a kid that was really disruptive, there weren't work arounds but the kid was removed from the classroom. They got their hind ends striped when I was a boy, instead of medicated.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2016 14:03:23 GMT -5
I did I quick search, seems overal rates are up slightly in all demographics, although teens are still lower overall than other groups.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2016 14:09:33 GMT -5
I don't know. Maybe it is just about awareness. I only knew of one teen pregnancy when I was in school too and now it seems like it's common. It just seems hard to hide a suicide, especially when they have siblings.
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 14:20:42 GMT -5
It may just be a local coincidence, minn.
We have a suicide around here every once in a while, and always have. Although I don't keep stats on such things, they don't seem to be a lot more or less common now than before to me.
Teen pregnancy, however, is quite common today, at least locally.
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vonna
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Post by vonna on Jan 16, 2016 14:40:24 GMT -5
This must be hard for your son, suicide is so sad, especially for the very young.
I don't know what is happening now where I went to high school, but though I am not aware of anyone committing suicide, teenage pregnancy was not all that rare. My graduation class was almost 1000. I also knew personally many girls who had abortions in high school and college.
Where I live now, my DS graduated in 2013 in a much smaller school (class size only 200) and DD is a fifth grader. No suicides that I am aware of, and the only teen pregnancy I know of was a nineteen year old that my son graduated with. My son did not go to school with any visibly pregnant girls. Who knows how many abortions were done, he isn't aware of any.
So my very limited view sees no difference in suicides, but fewer teenage pregnancies.
But I am also comparing different areas.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2016 14:47:10 GMT -5
I've heard of the suicide epidemic thing where all of a sudden a bunch of kids in a row do it or even have a pact. But these are all around a year apart (although the attempt and this one were only a couple months). It's a big deal here when it happens so hard to miss. The schools came to a halt on Thursday and it wasn't long before the news had spread to everyone that didn't have kids at the middle school as well. It's below zero and there are people lined up around the block waiting to get into the college where the prayer service was being held today...also typical. I guess on one hand it's probably bad because you don't want to make them out to be rock stars to the other kids, but on the other, it's really to support the family who are undoubtedly devastated.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jan 16, 2016 14:47:55 GMT -5
I was looking at a couple of papers, and the incidence of teen suicide really hasn't changed from 2005 through 2015 (in one article). I went back a little further and found this data by age from 1950 through 2010. With the CDC data, it looks like it started going up between the 1970s-1980s and has remained fairly consistent since then. www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779940.htmlThe data is through the CDC, so I'd be fairly confident in this.
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Robert not Bobby
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Post by Robert not Bobby on Jan 16, 2016 14:57:01 GMT -5
Is it just my perception, or is the prevalence of this going up? Class size was huge back when I was in school (I think we were the first generation from the baby boomers), but not a single kid committed suicide in our district while I was in school. Today, my son is going to a visitation for one of his classmates. The 4th kid in 5 years within a year or two of age of him to commit suicide and I know of at least one other attempted one, although I'm sure there were more of those I didn't know about, this just happened to be a cousin's stepdaughter. This just seems so bizarre to me. I remember life being pretty sucky at times in middle school, but enough to take your own life at 13 or 14? Ugh. The two kids that I knew fairly well had a really good life too. One was our neighbor, huge house on every toy a 15 year old kid could want, 4 wheelers, snowmobiles, his parents paid a fortune so he could race stock cars on the weekend. Too much pressure on kids these days? Too much social media? Blame Facebook? I have not had any of my kids friends commit suicide, that I know of. But yes, the world is changing and on steroids...social media has a part in it, but that is not the full story. Maybe kids are just feeling more stressed out these days, and their parents are preoccupied with other things. SAD
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Jan 16, 2016 15:31:01 GMT -5
Teen suicide has been an issue for several decades. I remember Dad, a school administrator, talking about teen suicides back in the mid 70's.
Seems that we don't have much more understanding of the cause now than we did 40 years ago.
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 16, 2016 15:57:02 GMT -5
... Teen pregnancy, however, is quite common today, at least locally. FWIW
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 16:00:06 GMT -5
... Teen pregnancy, however, is quite common today, at least locally. FWIW As I said, it's likely a local thing. There really isn't much for teenagers to do around here.
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 16, 2016 16:03:32 GMT -5
FWIW As I said, it's likely a local thing. There really isn't much for teenagers to do around here. You indicated "today" so I wonder: have the local kids always been popping out kids or is it what they have always been doing? did they just learn how to have sex recently. EDIT:whoops that ha makes no sense EDIT 2: fixed it
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 16:05:32 GMT -5
You know, I probably just notice it more because I now have two teenage boys, and am more exposed to it.
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billisonboard
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Post by billisonboard on Jan 16, 2016 16:13:32 GMT -5
You know, I probably just notice it more because I now have two teenage boys, and am more exposed to it. Hopefully your boys have other things to do unless you are ready to be a grandfather.
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Robert not Bobby
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Post by Robert not Bobby on Jan 16, 2016 16:22:15 GMT -5
Bill, be kind...it was a disturbing observation.
Greg in Tennessee, don't be a resident hillbilly. I have nothing against mountain men myself, but why the killing weapon on your profile? You are better than that, aren't you?
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 16, 2016 16:36:56 GMT -5
Teen pregnancy is treated differently now than in the 80s. It seems to be more prevalent, but it is just not hidden anymore.
As for suicide, the statistical rate is not a huge difference between now and the 80s. Maybe they are concentrated in certain types of neighborhoods?
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Robert not Bobby
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Post by Robert not Bobby on Jan 16, 2016 16:56:50 GMT -5
I really can't contribute to this.
The idea that you would want to off yourself, before you really know who you are, is really strange to me.
As far as teenage pregnancies, once upon a time, if a young lady was 14, she was ready...but had a husband and a supportive family (I'm talking pioneer days). These days those bonds don't seem to exist.
Nothing wrong with getting Pregnant in your thirties, after college and the beginning of a career.
The world changes....
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jan 16, 2016 18:25:18 GMT -5
As other's have posted - the rates have stayed somewhat consistent. The difference is that it's acknowledged. Case in point - your kid is going to the visitation. I strongly suspect in the not so distant past the suicide was 'hushed up' as much as possible and whatever funeral/wake/whatever was as private as possible. Everyone 'looked the other way' as quickly as possible and talked about anything except what happened.
Perhaps it depends on the religious background of the family as well. Suicide is an express ticket to Hell for some belief systems. That's a whole 'nother layer of shame/pain to add to the family/friends of a suicide. I suspect that makes people NOT want to talk about/broadcast it either.
I think what's changed is the idea that suicide should be acknowledged.
Not all thoughts/actions suicide are generated by 'drugs' or too much "pressure" or too much 'stress'.
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svwashout
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Post by svwashout on Jan 16, 2016 18:37:25 GMT -5
Here is a recent long-form article about this issue: The Silicon Valley Suicides: Why are so many kids with bright prospects killing themselves in Palo Alto?www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-silicon-valley-suicides/413140/Contagion was mentioned here as well, so I think you're right to be alarmed by this situation, but the other factors seem murky, so it's not clear what to do about it. A long talk about this, symptoms or no, may be a place to start.
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 19:26:49 GMT -5
You know, I probably just notice it more because I now have two teenage boys, and am more exposed to it. Hopefully your boys have other things to do unless you are ready to be a grandfather. Yeah....that worries me. My older son in on his way to girlfriend's house now.
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 19:29:07 GMT -5
Bill, be kind...it was a disturbing observation. Greg in Tennessee, don't be a resident hillbilly. I have nothing against mountain men myself, but why the killing weapon on your profile? You are better than that, aren't you? I don't see a "killing weapon". I see a competition rifle I put together myself that shoots TINY little groups on paper at very long distances. You ain't from around here, huh? The "X" ring on a paper target is all it ever kills.
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gregintenn
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Post by gregintenn on Jan 16, 2016 19:44:18 GMT -5
LOL! I'll be careful and not point my avatar at you Robert.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Jan 16, 2016 20:35:40 GMT -5
My area had two suicides in the past two years. The most recent one no one in my family knew. He was a 15 yr old boy from our town. The other was a 16 yr old girl who my DD knew very well. They were essentially "lab" partners for a year in cooking class in HS. So almost every day they spent most of an hour together talking and doing their cooking. DD was shocked when she heard it had happened. She said she was one of the nicest, happiest people she had ever met.
I asked some kids what they knew and it seems they knew a lot. The girl had been severely depressed since she was a little kid. She was being treated but obviously it wasn't successful. The boy the first thing a teen told me was he was heavily into acid. And I don't mean apple cider vinegar. The teens said they knew the police was getting close to busting him for selling the drugs. Whether it was the stress of knowing the the net was closing in on him or the drug use I don't know.
The parents of both kids did op eds. Both went on and on about bullying and how it caused their beloved to kill themself. I do really feel bad for them that they lost their baby. I don't understand why though the police wouldn't say what had really happened though. Because every single kid at the HS knew bullying wasn't an issue.
So does this happen more often or do we just hear about it more? I honestly don't know.
I am sorry for your son's loss though.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jan 16, 2016 21:43:05 GMT -5
We lost a high school girl who got hit by a car Everyone knew she liked to play "chicken" with the cars and run in front of them and make them screech to a halt. One didn't. She died. No one told the truth. Not even to the poor driver who was a total wreck of course. It wasn't his fault but he will live with that guilt forever. I told DD if those parents sued the driver I was going to tell. But although the parents garnered a lot of public sympathy and money from those that didn't know the truth I think they knew the real story. It's sad all the way around.
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on Jan 16, 2016 22:24:09 GMT -5
I think these things are rare enough that increasing/decreasing depends on your local circle. From my POV, suicides are more rare than when I was a teen, and teen pregnancy rates are declining (but less hidden/stigmatized, too). But children dying from diseases like cancer and heart disease are increasing. But that's just my POV, based on my acquaintances and my kids' classmates.
DS4 had a classmate die at age 7. DD3 lost a classmate to suicide and one to a rare ovarian cancer, both her sophomore year of HS. It was all the more incomprehensible that one girl chose to end her life while another was fighting tooth and nail to keep living.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Jan 17, 2016 9:21:49 GMT -5
I think it is more acknowledged now. But, I also think it is more prevalent as well. I think there are a lot of factors. It is far easier now to bully someone 24/7 than it used to be with social media. Kids are more vicious in their attacks now. And, many kids don't have the social support of parents, grandparents, siblings, etc like in past times. I think there is more drug use at earlier ages. That affects your perception and thinking. I think that we have raised impossible expectations on many kids. It isn't possible for every to be a star athlete, valedictorian, great musician and so forth all the time. We dont' allow kids to breathe. Sometimes 'good enough" is good enough. They don't have to be top dog at everything. Kids lives often consist of sitting in a car being shuttled from one performance to another be it a club athletic event, music lessons, etc. That is their life, a nonstop revolving door of running from one thing to another with no real down time to bond with their own family or have to time to just think and be.
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