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December
Adolescent Suicide
There are some gender-based differences in
adolescent suicide. Girls attempt suicide more
frequently than boys, but boys complete the act
more frequently than girls. Girls tend to employ
passive methods such as drug overdoses that are
less disfiguring and less certain to be lethal,
while boys are apt to use more violent and certain
methods such as hanging or shooting themselves.
Boys don't typically commit suicide as an extreme
reaction to a single precipitating event, even a
great disappointment. Careful examination of
individual cases shows that what appear to be
immediate precipitating events are better seen as
the culmination of a set of difficulties the boy
has experienced over a substantially longer period
of time. In a study of 154 adolescents who killed
themselves, the researchers concluded that a sense
of hopelessness was the most critical factor.
Suicide sets off such an intense and prolonged
reaction among immediate family and friends that
the question of whether they should have been able
to prevent it is inevitably raised. Warning signals
have been defined, including unusually stressful
events in a boy's life, mood changes, disturbed
sleep and eating patterns, statements suggesting
despair, and even verbal mention of suicide. Only
the last of these symptoms, however, is
specifically predictive of suicide plans, and it
may be a way of expressing despair rather than a
forewarning. Parents of adolescents shouldn't
generally regard themselves as on a chronic suicide
watch.
What does matter is whether parents, teachers
and other concerned adults consistently try to
maintain close relations with adolescent boys.
There are many reasons to do this besides suicide
prevention. Adults who are close to kids and not
disposed to deny the evidence before their eyes and
ears will sense major mood shifts and can raise
concerned inquiries or guide boys to professional
help if the mood shifts seem beyond parental
remedy. Sometimes a change of school or a new
activity or expressions of interest and concern
from other people will effectively counter a major
downward mood swing. Adults who are relatively
detached from their children may not notice signals
of despair.
Some suicide attempts are social in
nature—dramatic ways of showing how desperate
and unhappy a person feels. Others reflect a
person's ambivalence, a wish both to end it all and
not to end it-but to have relief from the pain of
despair.
©2007 Eli Newberger
Eli Newberger,
M.D., a leading figure in the movement to improve
the protection and care of children, is renowned
for his ability to bring together good sense and
science on the main issues of family life. A
pediatrician and author of many influential works
on child abuse, he teaches at Harvard Medical
School and founded the Child Protection Team and
the Family Development Program at Children’s
Hospital in Boston. From his research and practice
he has derived a philosophy that focuses on the
strength and resilience of parent-child
relationships, and a practice oriented to
compassion and understanding, rather than blame and
punishment. He is the author of The
Men They Will Become: The Nature and Nurture
of Male Charaacter
and lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife
Carolyn, a developmental and clinical child
psychologist." www.elinewberger.com
or E-Mail.
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