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stories are dramatized or described in a gory way, or romanticized
(Romeo & Juliet), or the situation is glorified, the result is more
Recommendations for the Media.
Serious depression and suicide in children and teens
The commonness of depression in adults has been cited before—
about 12% of women and 7% of men in America struggle with
depression sometime during each year. We are getting a clearer view
of how many young people also feel seriously depressed—about 2.5%
of children and 8.3% (3 million!) of adolescents. The CDC 2001 survey
also found that 28% of students had felt so sad or hopeless almost
every day for two weeks in a row during the year that they stopped
doing some of their usual activities. As a society, we are often
unaware of or deny sadness in young people; we don’t see the signs.
Many parents don’t even think children can have mental illness or be
depressed; thus, another reason they don’t get treatment. However,
when a child or teenager kills him/herself, which 5000 do every year in
the US, they suddenly get our attention. Only auto accidents and
homicides kill more teenagers. More than 1000 young people in the US
attempt to take their lives every day. WOW! Did you realize that? This
is a very serious problem. Schools have given suicide some attention,
but we need a national movement to increase our early recognition of
hurting youth. As mentioned before, adolescents and children need to
be taught and encouraged to tell friends, family, teachers,
professionals, etc. that they are feeling down. And every teenager
needs to be taught to take very seriously all disclosures of suicide
intent; they need to be taught what to say and do when a friend hints
that they are thinking about harming themselves. This is serious
business.
The suicide rate for teens has increased three fold since 1960. This
seems to be in spite of many more Suicide Prevention efforts in
schools, more Community Mental Health resources available, better
Mental Health coverage in the media and in schools, and supposedly
more general psychological sophistication. What is going wrong here?
For one thing, most people who kill themselves are suffering or, more
likely, have suffered for many years from depression or some other
mental illness. The rising suicide statistics may be an indictment of the
entire Mental Health system in our country. Community Centers are
not well funded, focus more on chronic psychosis and not on youth or
young families, and they are not adequately staffed to treat all the
emotional problems in millions of families without health insurance.
The Community Mental Health Services were a great idea in the 1960’s
but the clinics have not been evaluated and supported. Mostly they
were turned into crisis centers for the poor and the chronically
mentally ill. Consequently, the Mental Health Centers have for several
years not been appealing to the middle class, the youth, or the elderly.
Rate of suicide by special groups
