The Youth Suicide Hysteria

[Modern School]

In honor of the one-year anniversary of Modern School, I am reposting some of my favorite articles from the past year. The following is a very short piece, but it represents one of my favorite themes: debunking common misperceptions about youth.

Teenagers are routinely portrayed as irresponsible risk takers and drug abusers who have rampant unprotected sex, contract STDs, get pregnant and kill themselves in droves. All of these are gross exaggerations. In fact, rates of pregnancy, STDs, drug abuse and suicide for teenagers have all been steadily declining and are generally lower than the rates for their parents' generation.


Youth Suicide Hysteria
Youth suicide rates are at the lowest levels ever recorded, with today's rate less than half that of 40 years ago. Youth suicide rates are far lower than adults, too.Only 1 in 2500 teens (13-19) kill themselves, whereas 1 in 900 parent-aged adults do.

While teen suicide, indeed all suicide, is tragic, what is generally not discussed, are the actual reasons for it. In today's media, we have been barraged with accounts of teens taking their own lives after being bullied, yet a far more common trend among teen suicides in not a history of bullying, but a history of living in an abusive family, according to Mike Males

Modern School
http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2011/10/youth-suicide-hysteria.html

[chollybocker]

1. Hysteria. Yup.

"...accounts of teens taking their own lives after being bullied, yet a far more common trend among teen suicides in ((sic)) not a history of bullying, but a history of living in an abusive family,..."

Care to clarify this *important* distinction for us?

[Modern School]

3. Abusive Families Are A Leadi

You could certainly consider child abuse a form of bullying, in which case, the distinction is negligible. However, the current media obsession with bullying refers to schoolyard bullying and cyber-bullying and, most importantly, to kids bullying other kids. The focus is on kids and how f-ed up they are. It is a deliberate attempt to distract attention from the fact that adults are far more likely than kids to commit suicide, have unplanned pregnancies, catch STDs, become addicted to drugs and commit violent crimes.

Bullying sucks, but the schoolyard type rarely causes suicide, at least not on its own. Mental illness and substance abuse and are by far the two most significant risk factors for suicide, accounting for as much as 87-98% of all suicides http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide. This is not to say that bullying should be ignored, but just that it has been exaggerated as a risk factor for suicide. Also, while teen suicide is a tragedy, it, too, has been greatly exaggerated. Teens are three times more likely to experience a parent’s suicide than to try to take their own life. They are also far more likely to die a violent death at the hands of their parents or other family members, than they are to take their own life. However, teens who grow up in abusive families or who have experienced violence or sexual abuse, have an increased chance of developing PTSD, depression and other mental illnesses that can lead to suicide.

[chollybocker]

4. What is wrong with you?

What are you talking about? Is this a cry for help, or are you putting us on?

Quit that shit.

[Name removed]

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