Suicide Prevention

Unfortunately, young adults face an increased risk of suicide or other self-harming behaviors as the result of the many changes going on physiologically, any external pressures they feel from friends, family, and community members. Suicide prevention is a serious issue, and one that had garnered a great deal of attention in recent years. Unfortunately, many teens contemplate the potential for committing suicide or other self-harm behavior in many different situations. Suicide is defined as death in poisoning, suffocation, or injury when there is evidence that any self-inflicted act ultimately caused the person's death.

It is crucial to recognize the warning signs of suicide, which often include talking about killing oneself or harming oneself. Understanding these risk factors can empower community members and family members to take action to prevent youth suicide.

Sadly, suicide is the second biggest cause of death for individuals between the ages of 10 and 24. More than 5,000 people take their own lives every single year between this age category. Furthermore, for those individuals in grades 9 to 12, nearly 18% reported that they had seriously considered suicide at least once in the past year. Furthermore, 10% of students reported making a suicide attempt at least once in the past 12 months.

There are many different strategies that can be implemented in order to prevent youth suicides. In the wake of more information being released about bullying and activities that are carried out over social media, and other online platforms that is extremely important for parents to be aware of the warning signs, and to take necessary prevention steps to help support their children to have a happy and healthy life. Some of the most effective strategies for preventing youth suicides include reducing risk factors, enhancing protective factors, strengthening the norms that helps to support any help-seeking behavior, prevention of conditions like impulsive behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, and depression, and implementing prevention and screening activities for high-risk groups.

Some of the behaviors of someone considering suicide include acting nervous or agitated, using drug or alcohol more often, complaining of being a burden to others, feeling as though they are unbearable to support emotional pain, talking about shame or guilt, feeling trapped or believing that there's no hope, generating a plan or searching for a way to hurt themselves, like conducting research online, buying guns, or collecting pills, feeling hopeless, and they are talking as if there is no reason to live, talking about wanting to kill themselves, giving up important possessions, making goodbye statements to family members and friends, displaying severe mood swings, talking about death often, and participating in risks that could ultimately lead to death.

If these warning signs are exhibited by a young adult, you know it is seriously time to intervene and have a conversation about the value of their life, and take other preventative behaviors.

Some risk factors can increase the chances that a young adult would be thinking about suicide. Suicide fails to discriminate with regard to demographic characteristics. People of all ages, ethnicities, and genders can be at risked, and given that suicidal behavior is extremely complex, but there is no one root cause. The individual is most at risk and share a particular characteristics.

This includes chronic pain, previous suicide attempts, certain medical condition, mental disorders like substance abuse or depression, having firearms or guns in the home, if they have any history of suicide, if they have a history of family violence including sexual and physical abuse, being exposed to another person's suicidal behavior, having them recently released from jail or prison, and more.

Some people will have multiple risk factors, but may not attempt suicide. Suicide is not a typical reaction to stress. Death-related thoughts or actions are a sign of a serious distress, and not a simply a call for attention. This issue should never be ignored in any family members who noticed that a young adult is engaged in suicidal ideation or other risk factor behavior, so consult with an experienced mental health professional as soon as possible.