Last Updated on March 10, 2020
From 2007-2017, the rates of suicide have been on the rise in teenage people, due to many factors, teen suicide is now 76% higher than only a decade ago.
These are the statistics from the report presented by the Center for Disease Control:
- An overall increase in suicide for 10-24 years olds was 56%
- 15-19-year-olds had a greater increase of 76%.
- The rate of the increase for 15-19-year-olds rose to 10% from 2014 to 2017. Previously it had been 3%.
- Ages 15-24 equated to 6,252 suicidal deaths in 2017. Homicides for that age bracket, in comparison, were 4,905.
- 517 children from ages 10-14 committed suicide
- According to the Youth Risk Behavioral report by the CDC.
- 2% of teenagers 14-18 seriously considered suicide
- 6% made a serious plan, and
- 4% attempted suicide at least once
- 4% attempted suicide and were injured
- 5% felt extremely sad and hopeless at least two days a week
In the final year of this CDC analysis, 2017, the second largest death count was due to suicide in those in the 10-to-24 age group. Suicide has always made a percentage of annual deaths, but prior to this past decade the rates of suicide in young people had been on the decline.
The CDC narrows the potential origins of these increased suicidal ideations in young people to the drug epidemic, increased use of technology, cyber bullying subsequent from increased use of technology, social media addiction, and the normalization of teen suicide in pop-culture and media.
With an increase in daily tech use there are young people spending more of their time on social media. This, as we know now is a pattern of addiction to the dopamine provided by social media. Where technology is available to the young, and the prior unforeseen constant presence of “schoolyard bullying” are also considered major factors in this steep increase in suicidal inclinations in people aged 10-24.
When it comes to the opioid crisis, the increased potency of drugs across the board, and the state of mental illness that coincides with addiction, it can be difficult for medical professionals to put a death-by-overdose in one category of either suicide, or accidental death.
Once a single person dies from overdose or suicide, there is on average a 5% increase in subsequent suicides. Students who know someone who has taken their own life, or where many of the parents are drug addicted, also statistically hive higher rates of clinical depression rooted in thoughts of suicide.
The average age of an individual who will die of an overdose, between 20 and 30 years old, is roughly the same age as most parents. A psychiatrist at Cincinnati Children’s noted that in a duration of 3 months, 300 kids had been admitted with some kind of suicidal ideation happened to be during a period of lots over overdoses.
Death by overdose tends to have a ripple effect on any given community that influences an increased rate of suicide.
If you or a loved one are experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
