Over the past few decades the number of suicides among adolescents has skyrocketed. The numbers have risen so significantly that suicide has become the third leading cause of death among fifteen to twenty four year olds according to a children's health article titled "About Teen Suicide" (About). There are a number of reasons why this increase in suicides has occurred, and one of the main ones is that there has been a surge in mental illnesses among this age group. It was stated in the article "About Teen Suicide" that roughly ninety five percent of people who commit suicide suffered from one of the many psychological disorders out there, which explains why the increase in these disorders has correlated with the increase in adolescent suicides. There has been a lot of speculation over the years as to how the rate of suicides among the youth can be brought down, yet little action has taken place. In order to lower the amount of suicides occurring among adolescents there needs to be more focus placed on psychological disorders, an increased awareness of the liability with having a firearm in the household, a development of educational opportunities in the teachings of warning signs as well as how to help someone who is suicidal, and suicide barriers on bridges and other infrastructure. 

There are many commonly held beliefs about suicide out there, yet many are just myths, like how suicide attempts are just a cry for help. According to Stacy Freedenthal's article, "Is a Suicide Attempt a Cry For Help," a large study found that almost half (41.8%) of 286 people who reported that they had attempted suicide endorsed the following answer about their intentions: "My attempt was a cry for help. I did not intend to die" (Freedenthal). However, nearly sixty percent of them did intend to die. Other commonly held beliefs are that once a person has made a serious suicide attempt, that person is unlikely to make another, and if a person is serious about killing themselves then there is nothing you can do. In reality, people who have attempted suicide previously are at much greater risk to attempt suicide again, and providing support is just one of the many things you can do for a person who is serious about killing themselves. Many of the commonly held beliefs about suicide seem to try and discredit it, even though it's a fatally important issue.

Suicide is the intentional taking of one's life, something that we should focus a great deal of attention on. The majority of teens who were interviewed for a kid's health article titled "Suicide" after making an attempt said that, "they did it because they were trying to escape from a situation that seemed impossible to deal with or to get relief from really bad thoughts or feelings" (Suicide). There are an endless number of reasons as to why young people feel that suicide is the only answer to their problems, but the leading reasons include suffering from a psychological disorder, abuse, lack of a support network, dealing with sexual orientation, and overwhelming stress. With there being more stress on teens than ever to excel in school or to look like the heavily photoshopped images in magazines, it is no wonder that the number of suicides among adolescents has risen so dramatically over the years. In order to combat this quite serious problem we must first place much more emphasis on mental disorders than we do now.

In the past, psychological disorders have not received nearly as much attention as they require, and this is a problem for two reasons. The first reason is that an astonishing 20% of young people suffer, or have suffered, from a mental illness (Mental). This means that in my English class of about twenty-five people around five have had or are currently dealing with a mental disorder. The second reason is that people that are a part of this twenty percent carry out roughly ninety-five percent of the suicides that take place (Mental). This means that the main way we can lower the rate of suicides among adolescents is by giving psychological disorders as much attention as we can. 

Mental illnesses are disorders of brain function and result from the interaction between a person's genes and their environment. One way we need to place more focus on psychological disorders is by spending more of our health care budget on mental health. Even though roughly twenty percent of our youth suffer from mental illnesses, "only about 4 percent of the total healthcare budget is spent on our mental health" (Mental) according to the author of the article "Mental Disorders." If this percentage were increased it would allow for more research on psychotropic drugs to be carried out, better treatment options to be available, and better education regarding mental disorders. While psychotropic drugs do help a lot of people who suffer from psychological disorders, they also cause a lot of harm. The harm they cause is that most, if not all, psychotropic drugs can cause suicidal thoughts and idealizations as a side effect, which occurs fairly frequently. With more research, psychotropic drugs could become safer for people to take without the drug potentially putting the user in harm's way. Treatments options like inpatient facilities are supposed to provide a space for struggling adolescents to better themselves, yet many times they leave them worse off than they were before because of lack of funding for these facilities and more. Improving facilities like these through increased funding and other ways would help adolescents get better in a safe environment and prepare them to move forward with their lives once they are out. Better education provided to the public regarding suicide would help people be able to identify the warning signs of someone who is suicidal as well as teach the public how to help someone in need of support. These changes could significantly decrease the rate of suicide among youth in the United States.

A close friend of mine has suffered from depression and we both believe that it's difficult to grasp just how much of a need there is for more focus to be placed on psychological disorders without knowing about the lack of attention on research to make psychotropic drugs safer, the lack of finding better treatment options to make available, and the need for better education regarding mental disorders unless you or someone close to you has experienced it first hand. Before finding a psychotropic drug that was safe for him to take and helped him my friend was prescribed roughly half a dozen other drugs, all of which lead him to either think about suicide, experience other side effects, or just flat out not feel any better. Now if there were more money spent on either finding better psychotropic drugs, or finding a better method in choosing the right drug for someone, then maybe he, along with thousands of other young people who have gone through a similar situation, wouldn't have spent months trying to find a psychotropic drug that worked while suffering from the full force of a mental illness as well as the side effects of the psychotropic drugs that didn't work. It is with a heavy heart I say that far too many of the thousands of other adolescents who have gone through a similar situation to my friends ended their lives before finding a drug that worked for them. 

My friend spent some time in an inpatient facility and told me that his depression got significantly worse from the time he checked in to the time he checked out. In fact, throughout the time my friend spent in the facility, he saw few people make progress, and saw most people get worse. There needs to be a better option because without one, adolescents will continue to get worse in these facilities, sometimes so bad that they decide life isn't worth living anymore. From elementary school until now I have never received an in-depth lesson on the warning signs of someone who is suicidal or on ways to help someone in need of support and most others have not either. If more education was delivered in schools regarding these subjects, I truly believe that a large amount of suicides could be prevented. 

Simultaneous with better education in schools to raise awareness, there also needs to be an increased focus on the liability of having a firearm in the household. According to "One in Three Americans Own Guns; Culture a Factor, Study Finds," an article written by Maggie Fox of NBC news, "one-third of Americans reported owning a gun" (Fox). This is an astonishing figure considering that the number one way adolescents commit suicide is by firearm and a majority of guns kept in households are easily accessible. What is even more remarkable is that Justin Briggs and Alex Tabarrok, authors of "It's Simple: Fewer Guns, Fewer Suicides," analyzed a decade's worth of data on guns and suicides in the United States in order to come to the conclusion that there is a positive relationship between guns and suicides. They went on to consistently find in their research that, "each one percentage-point increase in household gun ownership rates leads to between 0.5 and 0.9 percent more suicides" (Briggs). In other words, each one percentage-point decrease in household gun ownership leads to between 0.5 and 0.9 percent less suicides. Suicide rates among young people would plummet if guns were just taken out of households, but sadly this is a difficult process considering the gun culture in the United States.

It is not possible at the moment to take away people's guns because, while there is a large amount of controversy over gun control going on right now, the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. However, awareness about the strong correlation between household gun ownership rates and suicide rates can be increased dramatically in order to let parents know about this relationship as well as the fact that the most used method to commit suicide among youth is by firearm. With this sharp rise in awareness the hope would be for more parents to recognize just how dangerous keeping a gun in the home is, and either get rid of the gun or reduce accessibility of the gun by keeping it locked up in a safe without telling your children the combination. In their article "It's Simple: Fewer Guns, Fewer Suicides," Justin Briggs and Alex Tabarrok talk about how in Australia, after a mass shooting occurred in 1996 killing thirty-six people, "a strong movement for gun control developed" (Briggs). Changes came about as a result of this movement, like how it, "nearly halved the share of Australian households with one or more firearms." In reaction to this drastic change there was, "an 80 percent fall in suicides by firearm, concentrated in regions with the biggest drop in firearms" while there was, "little sign of any lasting rise in non-firearm suicides" (Briggs). This is an excellent example that by either decreasing the share of American households with one or more firearms, or by getting the message across to parents to lock up their guns, the suicide rate could fall a significant amount. While some people might argue that suicidal adolescents will just go with another method of carrying out their plans, so raising awareness will do no good, these people are wrong. The majority of suicide attempts are carried out on impulse and, by parents taking away an extremely lethal method of taking one's life, their children will be left to either begin to think straight or, if they still go through with their attempt, go with a method not nearly as lethal as using a firearm.

Along with placing more focus on mental illnesses and increasing awareness of the liabilities associated with keeping a firearm in the household, there needs to be suicide barriers on bridges and other infrastructure that are dangerous enough that adolescents would consider jumping off of in order to attempt suicide. Bridges and other infrastructure like the Golden Gate Bridge, the most used site to commit suicide in the United States according to CNN, are popular among people who wish to attempt suicide, in large part because of their accessibility. Ken Baldwin, one of the lucky few to have survived a descent from the Golden Gate Bridge, told Tad Friend of The New Yorker for his article titled "Jumper" that he, "wanted to disappear," and that he chose the Golden Gate bridge to carry out his suicide attempt because he'd, "heard that the water just sweeps you under" (Friend). Baldwin felt as though everything in his life was unfixable, that is, until he jumped. Ken went on to tell Tad Friend that immediately after letting go of the railing, and starting to fall, he instantly realized that everything in his life that he'd, "thought was unfixable was totally fixable-except for having just jumped." Another man by the name of Kevin Hines, who was also interviewed for "Jumper" after surviving a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, confessed to Friend that after he jumped his, "first thought was what the hell did I just do? I don't want to die." These are just two of the endless number of accounts by survivors of suicide attempts that show immediate regret. Building suicide barriers on popular suicide destinations like the Golden Gate Bridge would remove the ability for people to attempt suicide by jumping, and as a result lower the number of suicides of adolescents because, while young people who would've jumped might still attempt suicide in another way, it will most likely be a less lethal method that will allow the person to hopefully think about what they have just done and feel the same way that Baldwin, Hines, and numerous others have felt immediately after attempting suicide. The difference is that a person can't go back and not jump but they can seek help after an attempt like an overdose and as a result, lives will be saved.

The lives that will be saved, that's what at stake in my argument. The lives of adolescents, who minutes, days, even years from now will, in a moment of weakness, attempt to take their own lives. Not only do these adolescents need our help, everybody who knows them requires our assistance, because when someone commits suicide, every person who knows them is affected. We need to give our undivided attention to psychological disorders, push parents to understand the significance of locking away a firearm if they decide to keep one in their home, and fight for the building of suicide barriers in as many high up places as possible in order to significantly decrease the frequency at which adolescent suicides are currently occurring. The youth are our future, and if we continue to let so many end their lives when there are ways we can help them, we will have a hard time progressing as a society. 

