There he sat, curled up in a ball all alone in his room. Today was the final straw for him. All his stress had caught up to him, and he thought there was no way around it. He felt like a giant disappointment to everyone, especially his family. His performance in school and sports had been dropping as of late, and he didn’t see it getting better anytime soon. Nothing was going right for the young man locked in his room, so he thought the only thing he could do was disappear. He knew if he just ran away he would be found eventually, so it had to be perfect. The quickest and easiest way in his mind was a gun, so that’s what he did. He grabbed his father’s pistol, put it to his head, pulled the trigger, and it was all over. Another young mind taken by suicide in the United States.
Suicide statistics for American youth are alarming. It’s hard to see that the young minds who should one day be leading our country are too afraid to even live and think taking their own lives is their best and only option. When the brain should be developing, it is instead forcing kids to make drastic decisions no one should ever have to make. According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide is the third leading cause of death between the ages of 10-24. That’s between fourth grade and around two to three years out of college, so somewhere there are fourth graders who should be starting football for the first time but instead are considering ways they can kill themselves. More kids will actually survive their attempts than end up dead, which can be alarming considering what then must be going through their heads after an attempt goes wrong.
Those above stats are a major problem in the United States. Yes, we have hunger issues, a huge debt problem, and racism still hanging around, but the suicide rates of the youth should be given more attention. We as people have become so used to kids committing suicide that it’s become a problem. We just believe that if a person is smiling that they are fine and can go along with their day, which isn’t always true. There are risk factors out there like easy access to a weapon, drug and alcohol abuse, and a recent tragic event among another things. These things should be taken into consideration whenever you as a friend suspect anything.
People do not like to talk about this subject, and that’s the main problem. People who are struggling with thoughts of killing themselves do not feel like they can talk to people about it, so they feel locked out from the world. Another major problem is that, far too often, the victim is blamed for it. People do not like to look for the real problem in these situations whether it be abusive people in their families, bullies, etc., so these types of people can keep getting away with these things. More than likely even if someone pushed someone over the edge, they will not be punished for it. People should be held accountable for their actions and more people should be open to talking to others about the topic of suicide. If these rates keep rising, more and more young developing minds will be lost, and that’s something that cannot stand anymore.
