Exploring The Risk Factors
Death already is packaged with immense grief. Death of a young one takes it further, adding helplessness to the misery. Losing an ambitious child, a playful brother, an extremely talented daughter scars the deepest and is irreversible. What can make this tragedy worse is if a child chose to end their life on their own.
Suicide among teens and children is a growing concern that is reeling in the attention of the world at large. According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), it is the second leading cause of death among children aged 15-19 years and a leading cause of death among children that lie in the age bracket of 14-15 years.
The teenage is a reactive tenure of a person’s life. All the emotions are at an all-time high and rationale seems to be scarce. The mind and body are constantly evolving. This results in the change of thought process and dealing with the vicissitudes of routinely teenage life becomes an arduous challenge. The developmental changes and the constant emotional turmoil that a child goes through during this fragile stage can be overwhelming and simple events can trigger chaotic reactions. Problems such as family feuds, breakups, struggles with education, maintaining or changing friendships become way too imposing for a child and might tip them over towards suicide.
Risk Factors
There are identifiable risk factors that might facilitate or trigger the children in their suicidal ambitions: Most notable factors are:
- Psychiatric Disorders: Depression and related mental illnesses such as bipolar disorders, anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) can make children irascible and irritable. Such behavioral problems can lead them to react rashly to simple problems and might induce suicidal thoughts in them.
- Family History: Children born in families that have a suicidal history are considerably prone to suicide themselves. According to one Danish study, children who have a mother or father lost to suicide are two and half times likely to be suicidal compared to those without any such history. Though medical professionals often debate that there are more factors adding to suicide and a suicidal parent or a relative is not enough for a child to commit suicide, still the cause is highly taken into consideration.
- Physical and Sexual Abuse: There is nothing more traumatic for children than abuse of a physical or sexual nature. In 2020 alone an alarming 3.9 million child abuse reports were registered and in 90.6% of the victims were abuse by either a single or both of the parents. Early child abuse can trigger various psychological disorders that culminates in inevitable death by suicide.
- Substance Abuse: Children with emotional stress often turn towards different substance as a quick fix. Facilitated by easy access and fatigued by stress children often develop addictions which quickly turn into abuse and later suicide.
- Emotional Baggage: Problems such as a brush up with a close family member or a friend, death of a loved one, acceptance issues, issues with sexual orientation build up into emotional baggage that children find difficult to cope up with.
- Medical Issues: Physical disabilities and chronic illnesses are yet another factor that influence children towards suicide. Children with medical impairments are bullied in schools and social circles that lead them to develop severe mental disorders. Also, they often develop a complex of not being able to perform like others and feel at a disadvantage at life. This all can culminate in depression which further leads to suicide.
In 2019, 546 children aged between 5-14 years ended their own lives in the US, the number climbs steadily with age with 2,210 children aged between 15-19 committing suicide. These haunting statistics call for the immediate attention of authorities and concerned bodies to step up their efforts toward addressing the grave issue of Teen Suicides.
Suicide Watch and Wellness Foundation is one organization that has endorsed the challenge of reducing suicides among children and people at large. As a suicide foundation, donations are welcomed as they run different programs to rehabilitate and assist suicidal individuals. They have an extensive volunteer program where people can participate in their programs, workshops, and related activities.
Suicide Watch and Wellness Foundation offer exclusive merchandise and the proceeds are channeled towards the different programs they oversee. From cute baby suits to jackets, from biodegradable mobile phone covers to sticker sheets and flags there is a wide range of products that you can buy to contribute to this wonderful cause.
Check Out the products at: https://suicidewatchandwellnessfoundation.org/shop/
