What reasons behind Teenagers suicide?

[Sa Palomera]

No, as opposed to adults, who generally would be able to see that such problems are temporary and who have developed the coping skills to deal with them.

Sorry but I think that's bull. There are some who have developed coping skills, and there are those who don't. Same with teenagers.

I already said that the abused are exempt from this little rant.

Okay so those who lost a parent at a young age, or those who have seen someone die, or those who have an eating disorder who 'are wallowing in self-pity', are basically a bunch of pathetic people? Is that what you're saying?
I'm sorry but if that's what you're saying, then my appreciation for you has just gone down the gutter. I'd like to think that being depressed over my dead mum is not self-absorbed. Looking around as a youngster, seeing all those people hanging around with their mums, going shopping with their mums, girls having talks about periods and god knows what else with their mums. That used to get me down to the point of being suicidal. Still does at times. I'd like to think that's grief, and normal pain to feel in such situation, rather than being self-absorbed :dry:

I realized that I was responsible for the person I CHOSE to be regardless of my circumstances. And I realize now that had I understood this earlier, it would have saved me a LOT of sadness. I stopped worrying about the things I couldn't control and began focusing on the things I could do something about.

Now that, I do agree with you about :smile:

 

[Esmeralda]

Way to dissuade them from so much materialism - sweet. :dry:
And way to perpetuate justification for unsustainable living - nice value to keep instilling in kids, no? (Why not make them take the bus downtown to the soup kitchen??) :dry:

Damned if they do and damned if they don't then, huh? So in your infinite wisdom, what is a parent to do? If they give everything they have of their time and love and possessions in order to ensure that their children have a wonderful Christmas or make it to and from sports practice because they can see that it is important to their children's development and STILL they are vilified, then I really feel sorry for them. And yes, I think ALL teens should do some sort of charity work at some point.

Another ridiculous, sweeping, and hyperbolic generalization (not to mention inaccurate). Gosh. 'Wouldn't want them to accidentally stumble upon the notion and accept that "there will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself" (Desiderata), now would we!

Yeah because the world doesn't teach us that at all. It's not a matter of people being greater or lesser than each other. After all, there is no person greater or lesser than another. This has nothing to do with encouraging your children to live up to their capabilities academically.

...usually leading into obsession with appearances and even more materialism - judging by all the 'tiny-perfect' homes owned and "run" (like miniature museums) by the suburbanites, actually ruining the environment :dry: Yep - another grand value to instill...a great and profound sense of meaning and purpose in our lives and that of our offspring (and we wonder why they become disillusioned so early on...

Are you even listening to yourself? I'm talking about a tidy room here. As far as I'm concerned, any child of mine will be able to decorate their room how they see fit, with gaudy posters and trinkets out the ass if they so choose. Paint the walls black for all I care. But materialism and the perfect little suburban home have nothing to do with taking 5 minutes out of your day to make sure that the bed is made and that there are no dirty clothes on the floor.

 

[Esmeralda]

BTW, throughout this thread in particular, you (and you alone) have repeatedly demonstrated a remarkable distain for adolescents, inferring that you’re actually biting your tongue in (leaning towards) calling them “fuckwits”. Though it was “magnanimous” of you not to include those who have suffered various forms of abuse, trauma, and/or mental illness in your broad summarizations.

I'm the one who has been called a fuckwit here, and that with no retaliation save a tongue in cheek comment. I am merely stating a fact. Take ALL of the teens who have not been abused and who do not have a chemical imbalance who are suicidal and look at them again in 10 years. I guarantee you will find that the VAST majority have moved on and are happy, well-adjusted adults. I hate to use the word PHASE here...

Call me dense, but I just can’t fathom this…Since a significant number of members on this site are indeed adolescents, and have indeed suffered abuse, trauma (and mental illness), and happen to be introspective (navel-gazers? Not all!), and since you have long passed your own “emo” stage and are not in the least suicidal yourself, just why exactly are you even here?? What is it that you *perceive* yourself as positively contributing to the subject that so many here in fact have been and/or remain affected by? Disrupting a sincere effort by the OP to try to understand such things by digressing about your horribly inept and obviously hopeless husband (though God love you and grant you your well-deserved brownie points, you “put up” with him)….

Bite me. I was NOT "emo". My Dad died and my Mom married his brother and skipped town. I was homeless and lost all my friends. I was arrested and interrogated by the FBI, ATF and Secret Service and very nearly did some significant prison time. Unless you call Hamlet "emo" then please refrain from using that moniker on me.

__________________

 

[Esmeralda]

Call me dense, but I just can’t fathom this…Since a significant number of members on this site are indeed adolescents, and have indeed suffered abuse, trauma (and mental illness), and happen to be introspective (navel-gazers? Not all!), and since you have long passed your own “emo” stage and are not in the least suicidal yourself, just why exactly are you even here?? What is it that you *perceive* yourself as positively contributing to the subject that so many here in fact have been and/or remain affected by? Disrupting a sincere effort by the OP to try to understand such things by digressing about your horribly inept and obviously hopeless husband (though God love you and grant you your well-deserved brownie points, you “put up” with him)….

Also, I do NOT "put up with" my husband. I adore him. But when he goes away on a business trip and can't even iron his dress shirts properly and goes into meetings looking disheveled after having ironed his shirt for 1/2 hour, I can only think that it may have done him some good to have learned a few of these "unnecessary" skills at a young age. And try to refrain from calling my husband inept. Feel free to hurl insults at me all you want using banal, maladroit and hastily-thrown-together "sentences", but leave my family out of it.

 

[Esmeralda]

I've suffered from severe depression from when I was like 15/16 until somewhere last year. only now (I'm 20) am I getting better.
I was in no way self-absorbed though. In fact the fact that some of my mates were depressed only dragged me down more. Because I cared so much.
Still I have periods during which I get really really down, suicidal even at times, just due to thinking of about how fucked up the world is and how awfully poor some people are and how people are destructing the planet as well as each other.
How is that self-absorbed?

I am sorry for your depression and having depressed individuals as friends certainly can't help matters when you are dealing with your own issues. But as far as the world being fucked up?

Anne Frank knew it better than anyone and still had this to say:

"I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."

"How true Daddy's words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."

"Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is! "

A teenager going through what is arguably the WORST possible experience fought off despair with her own thoughts and imagination and dreams and still CHOSE (yes, it is a choice) to believe in the decency of humanity, despite literally experiencing all of the ugliness it has to offer. She knew there was beauty there too and chose to focus on that instead.

 

[Esmeralda]

WHAT?
What a generalisation. My parents say "just do your best" because they know how much I would beat myself up for doing badly anyway, without their added pressure of thinking I was a failure if I didn't get straight As. It seems to me as if you are in no position to be posting in this topic in the first place, let alone insulting those who are obviously in such a bad place as to consider committing suicide. Whatever you think, it is adding nothing to the original question which is why todays teenagers are suicidal. Why? Because you seem to have no idea about what is going on in the minds of todays teenagers to make any judgement.

There is a VAST difference between getting straight A's and being pushed to accomplish everything you are capable of doing.

 

[Esmeralda]

Sorry but I think that's bull. There are some who have developed coping skills, and there are those who don't. Same with teenagers.

Okay so those who lost a parent at a young age, or those who have seen someone die, or those who have an eating disorder who 'are wallowing in self-pity', are basically a bunch of pathetic people? Is that what you're saying?
I'm sorry but if that's what you're saying, then my appreciation for you has just gone down the gutter. I'd like to think that being depressed over my dead mum is not self-absorbed. Looking around as a youngster, seeing all those people hanging around with their mums, going shopping with their mums, girls having talks about periods and god knows what else with their mums. That used to get me down to the point of being suicidal. Still does at times. I'd like to think that's grief, and normal pain to feel in such situation, rather than being self-absorbed :dry:

I know how devastating it is to lose a parent Ish. I lost my Dad at 16 and he was my best friend in the world. They had a father-daughter picnic at school that year that nearly sent me over the edge big time, and yes, I wallowed like a pig in slop for awhile. You know that feeling at first when you wake up with the fog of sleep still settled over your mind, and then suddenly that feeling of remembering the death of your parent hits you in the face like a tidal wave? No teenager should have to go through the loss of a parent

One day, I was watching the movie "Arthur" with Dudley Moore (you know, the one where he is an alcoholic?...brilliant movie) and the man who basically raised him had just died, so of course, he goes out to get drunk. When the guy at the bar asks him what's wrong, he tells him his Father just died. When the man says how sorry he is, Arthur says, "Don't be. I was lucky to have known him at all."

That strange little moment in a strange little movie really changed my perspective on the whole thing. It hit me that some (maybe most?) people never experience for even a moment the unconditional love I experienced for all those years, and in that moment, I was so thankful for the time I had been given with my Dad that I just cried.

Anyway, Ish, like you, that's what started all my suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and I am not judging you for that in any way, because I think grief over a death causes a sort of "temporary insanity" I thought I would never smile again. The pain was crushing and physical and utterly destitute of any hope. The prospect of living even 1 more year like that was unthinkable.

But I got through the initial stages of it and started to change my perception of the situation and tried to live a life that both I and my Dad would be proud of. Now most of the time, when I think about him, I can laugh instead of cry and smile instead of frown, which is exactly what he would want.

take care.

 

[Boratz]

Re: What reasons behind Teenagers suicide?

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Anesthesia,

I disagree that it's because the parents are self-absorbed. They work and sacrifice so much because they have kids who say all they want for Christmas is a 600 dollar Playstation3. And they have the SUV (not a sportscar) so that they can shuttle the kids to and from soccer/gymnastics/hockey practice every single evening after they get home from work.

The good majority are.This is exactly the stereotypical society I am tryng to get over with. They sacrifice the most important value the kids can have ,the precious time of their parents by working so much. By working so much so they can feel good what is hidden inside them,the guilt to compensate the time & attention the kids desperately needed is covered by the material things the parents think is more essntial than the precious time.

Your loving words that makes sense to a child is the best self assuring thing they can have. Tell them , would you like me to get a second job so you can have the playstation for Christamas? Well I am home so I can make you breakfast, help with your homework, & have fun after that? You choose. I will bet my arm & legs ,what is the answer. Another point is no one is home to be with them o in boredom they stuck watching Tv & what do you think they are bombarded by TV? Your guess is as good as mine. So who put them there in the first place?to want a freakin nintendo or whatchamakilt.
Actually I look at those soccer moms,baseball, gymnastics, etc. etc. are pressures from the parents too. Not becoz the children needed but it since Joe smow's kids are in sports ,I should have my child do so too.
I feel pity for the children trapped by the mentality of our compettiveness society. They become robots , merchandise to show their friends & neighbors & brag about them with nothing really had to do with the children but just for the sake of conversation. After the weather is talked & over with ,then the question about the children comes up.

Every single night . Every single night.Every single night.........

How horrifying this is for the children. After 8 hours of stress & brain training in academia ,the homework up to ying yang , how can we impose to the little tiny brains coping of them can absorbed. On top of the cocky coaches who are also playing favoritism instead of being a trainor.

]And re: the pressure to get good grades and have a tidy room...gimme a
break[/COLOR][/COLOR].

Good grades is not a measurement of ones ability no matter how old you are. Here it is : to pressure them to get good grades. Pressure, Pressure Pressure. They may seem great in school but doesn't mean they are not bleeding inside.



I understand where your bleeding heart is coming from, but if a child can't handle those minor requirements, how are they EVER going to survive the real world? Our parents don't say "Just do your best" because to a teenager, that's the exact same thing as saying, "Don't fail or anything, but don't knock yourself out trying either". Parents encourage their children to get better grades because they generally know what their children are capable of and they want their children to have the opportunity to go to college if that's what they want and only their parents have the foresight to know that good grades in high school are absolutely necessary for this. And a tidy room? That's just common sense. It takes approximately 5 minutes every day to make your bed and throw old clothes in the laundry basket. A kid who can't handle that...well, I just don't know what to say to that. Cleanliness shows respect for oneself, one's environment, one's possessions and the family home in general, not to mention the fact that the child is learning good habits that will last him or her the rest of their lives.

they want their children........they want,.........they want they want..........

How is a tidy room gotta do when its come to survival situation? Knowing how to make the bed everyday is so pathetic to mention. To take 5 minutes everyday is like programming the brain to recite the rosary. Let us take 5 minutes how your day go kids? Five minutes to learn what they & how they want them to spend it is a call practcing them to make their own decisions. Not programming them to make the decisions for themselves.

How many people here has good learning habits & still depressed? Cleanliness is holiness. Sounds familiar? Allow me to be proud of my son. He does not like making his bed & I allow it. Damn ,but bring him to the campgrounds & he '
will show you what a sharp shooter he is. He make a trebuchet one time & it works.

It is up to the parents to guide their children and teach them how to live so that when they leave the house, they can take care of themselves. For example, I love my husband to pieces, but he was never forced to clean anything and now the man can't wash a dish or iron a damn shirt. I'm not saying he WON'T, because bless his heart, he tries. He literally CAN'T do it as quickly and efficiently ass I can. It takes him 30 minutes to iron a shirt and then it still looks like crap.

Who cares if his shirt is not ironed. Do not underestimate the capability of someone who looks croddy everyday. They are always fools , the tragedy is sometimes is we always judge the homeless as dirty & the shirt are not ironed well. Be careful , some fools can be foolish but not all of them are real fools. Judge the book whether it make sense to you or not,not by its cover but at the end.

We may not like it all the time, but our parents are there not only to shelter us and care for our needs, but to TEACH us, and sometimes, those lessons aren't very much fun. Bravo to the parents who don't just get lazy because they are tired of hearing their children complaining and who actually do the tough thing by making their children do these things.

by making their children do these things. TEACH us how ? By making our children stressed out & resorting to suicide to escape the pressures that the society instill in them just like as you described them to be. Higher education do not guarantee the survival the fittest.

You like to use theses make them too much. I kinda suspect you are one of those?

Long homily huh.. I apologize. I love you ,Anstasia.

 

[Esmeralda]

Re: What reasons behind Teenagers suicide?

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Anesthesia,

The good majority are.This is exactly the stereotypical society I am tryng to get over with. They sacrifice the most important value the kids can have ,the precious time of their parents by working so much. By working so much so they can feel good what is hidden inside them,the guilt to compensate the time & attention the kids desperately needed is covered by the material things the parents think is more essntial than the precious time.

I agree that society is too materialistic, and that we need to make a move back toward more traditional values and that parents should spend more time with their children, so no argument there. However, I DO think that parents succumb to pressure put on them by their own children to provide them with material possessions, which may not be right, but I don't necessarily think it's selfish either.

Your loving words that makes sense to a child is the best self assuring thing they can have. Tell them , would you like me to get a second job so you can have the playstation for Christamas? Well I am home so I can make you breakfast, help with your homework, & have fun after that? You choose. I will bet my arm & legs ,what is the answer. Another point is no one is home to be with them o in boredom they stuck watching Tv & what do you think they are bombarded by TV? Your guess is as good as mine. So who put them there in the first place?to want a freakin nintendo or whatchamakilt.
Actually I look at those soccer moms,baseball, gymnastics, etc. etc. are pressures from the parents too. Not becoz the children needed but it since Joe smow's kids are in sports ,I should have my child do so too.
I feel pity for the children trapped by the mentality of our compettiveness society. They become robots , merchandise to show their friends & neighbors & brag about them with nothing really had to do with the children but just for the sake of conversation. After the weather is talked & over with ,then the question about the children comes up.

And I see nothing wrong with kids being involved in sports. How many kids do you know who DON'T want to play sports or be in Boy or Girl Scouts? Not many. Sports give children self-confidence, a social life outside of school (which can be HUGE when they are not well-liked by their schoolmates, and sports teach them to live healthy, active lifestyles. And there is NOTHING wrong with a little friendly competition. The world is competitive, and while nurturing and sheltering your children is of course important, so is teaching them about the real world and preparing them for it.
Every single night . Every single night.Every single night.........

Good grades is not a measurement of ones ability no matter how old you are. Here it is : to pressure them to get good grades. Pressure, Pressure Pressure. They may seem great in school but doesn't mean they are not bleeding inside.

It's not pressure, it's teaching children to take pride in what they do and to try their best. Why even send kids to school at all if it doesn't matter one way or the other? We can just let them lie in bed in their filth-encrusted rooms getting fat from lack of activity and reading comic books (assuming they even know how to read). These are the kinds of people who end up being 35 and living in Mom's basement because they literally CANNOT deal with the real world and real world expectations.

How is a tidy room gotta do when its come to survival situation? Knowing how to make the bed everyday is so pathetic to mention. To take 5 minutes everyday is like programming the brain to recite the rosary. Let us take 5 minutes how your day go kids? Five minutes to learn what they & how they want them to spend it is a call practcing them to make their own decisions. Not programming them to make the decisions for themselves.

A tidy room teaches them respect for their environment and their home. I dunno about you, but if I was a girl invited to a guy's house for a date and food is rotting in the sink and there are 5 years worth of newspapers stacked from floor to ceiling, my creepiness radar is gonna go off pretty fast and I will be outta there, up the basement stairs, through his Mom's house and in my car pretty quickly.

I don't see why having a meaningful dialogue with your child and asking that the child keep a tidy room are mutually exclusive.

How many people here has good learning habits & still depressed? Cleanliness is holiness. Sounds familiar? Allow me to be proud of my son. He does not like making his bed & I allow it. Damn ,but bring him to the campgrounds & he '
will show you what a sharp shooter he is. He make a trebuchet one time & it works.

If there is a nuclear holocaust, then maybe your son will be fine, but isn't it important to teach them to live in the world as it exists right now as well?

Who cares if his shirt is not ironed. Do not underestimate the capability of someone who looks croddy everyday. They are always fools , the tragedy is sometimes is we always judge the homeless as dirty & the shirt are not ironed well. Be careful , some fools can be foolish but not all of them are real fools. Judge the book whether it make sense to you or not,not by its cover but at the end.

Who cares if he looks like crap or not? Well, the people who work in his office for one, and the clients he has to meet with on a regular basis. You may not think it's fair, but there are certain social norms we need to learn and follow in order to be successful in the real world.

by making their children do these things. TEACH us how ? By making our children stressed out & resorting to suicide to escape the pressures that the society instill in them just like as you described them to be. Higher education do not guarantee the survival the fittest.

Honestly, as long as our children know we love them and want the best for them and will accept them for who they are, I see nothing wrong with asking that they do their best in school or keep a clean room or learn how to manage basic household chores. A child who would get overly-stressed out over these simple things obviously has a nervous disorder of some sort.

All that being said, you sound like a great mother who cares very deeply for her child/children as I am sure they are very much aware. I just hope they are prepared to go out into society and become successful adults, because preparing our children to leave the nest is a HUGE part of being a good parent.

 

[Boratz]

Anastasia,
For all points view of discussion we agree or disagree it is certainly that the path we are travelling are different but the destination that we think for our children to be is both good & the same.
My son lives in a home that no rules exist. He has to make his own judgement all the time. What we have at home are all basic needs , as I hail & grown in a very tiny village where we don't have bed to make. Goddamn mosquito nets ,my mother , whether we took them off every morning or not ,she will check & double check if there are mosquitoes trapped inside before we go inside.

From this perspective I gained from my parents most of the lessons learned in their generation. I thought of it that our parents did not know nor foreseen what lies ahead in the next generation. Be in our tiny village or in the world. But the very basic foundation was instill in everyone of my siblings down to the grandchildren. From a maternal society i came from, it is not our fault that we have to battle the opposition that it divides us. We don't iron & cater to men's needs if they look croddy be it. They have two hands . We focus our time to our children's needs. On top of our differences , I never really know how to tie a necktie nor my father can . He is a farmer, a businessowner, a physicist, all I know is he comes back around 7am & eat breakfast & gone again for the day. If he sees us in bed when he comes back ,he throws a coconut on our roof & makes us all running left & right. No words used,but message acrossed.

I make it very simple like we always have to run & always ready to attack back once there is a threat coming. What I hate being this way though , he always have a friend to sleep over every single weekend when it is the only time we have as I don't have a full custody of him. Talking about being social.. he is social alright. I may tell you how my heart so broken when his custody was taken away . Had I have all the freedom a mother could have, I could have homeschool him. I revolt against the regimentation of the academia. Your school here is so diffrent from my school. We go home for lunch,you can chose to go back or not. No one is being punished for homework . We have no system that says who is great who is good & who is no good. Games we made up , nobody wins nobody lose. Why ? It is a never ending cycle game. All have to stop in exhaustion ,no scores points .

This is quite an enlightenment for me to see how these teens ends up in here. I surf the web to track my son & what the hell the school is doing to the children. Goddamn homework .

I start as a menace in my family, a product of a totlitarian regime I become a radical . Then for whatever reason ,I end up in the country I have no idea who controls every country including ours. . This is how I can discern the differences that divides us. East & West.

Hell of a debate. Thanks for listening. Reading long posts. I did the same.

We are so different ,yet our goal is the same.

BORATZ

 

[Esmeralda]

Wow Boratz! Thanks for sharing your history with me. It definitely makes it easier to understand your point of view. Growing up in a village where survival is so important must make the rituals in the West seem a bit silly to you Here, we don't have to worry so much about things like that and we don't really have to work together to survive, so we are more focused on academics and competition than in the East I suppose.

You must understand though that for most teens, being asked to get good grades and have tidy rooms etc. are just a way of life and not necessarily the huge sources of stress that you may view them as. For example, I was rarely stressed about school and homework and cleanliness. It was habit for me to go to school every day, come home and do my homework, go to gymnastics classes and keep my room clean. And thank God I had wonderful parents who spent lots of time with me and made me aware every day of how much I was loved no matter what.

I am sorry you only have partial custody of your son. That must be very difficult for you to handle. You sound like you are trying your best to be an excellent parent to your son and I hope he knows how lucky he is to have a mother who loves him so much

 

[Melancholy]

You must understand though that for most teens, being asked to get good grades and have tidy rooms etc. are just a way of life and not necessarily the huge sources of stress that you may view them as.

Woah! YOU must understand that maybe things have changed for our generation. OBVIOUSLY those things are stressors for lots of teenagers at the moment, otherwise why would they have identified them (in this thread and many others) as making them feel so down? Once again, how can you speak on behalf of those you don't seem to understand?

 

[Esmeralda]

YOUR generation? How old do you think I am? I only recently finished getting my Master's Degree for crying out loud! I know school can be a bit stressful, but in comparison with the stresses of family life and the global climate and financial worries, it isn't all that bad. I long for the days when my only "job" was to attend school and study for a few hours a day.

Also, if teens would only study on a consistent and regular basis and complete their coursework on time, then they could mitigate the stress of exams and grades greatly.

This also goes back to developing coping skills. I'm not sure if they are not being taught effectively by the parents or if teens just can't see that although grades are important, they are not the be-all and end-all of existence because they are so absorbed in the moment that they cannot see more than a couple of months into the future.

 

[Petal]

YOUR generation? How old do you think I am? I only recently finished getting my Master's Degree for crying out loud! I know school can be a bit stressful, but in comparison with the stresses of family life and the global climate and financial worries, it isn't all that bad. I long for the days when my only "job" was to attend school and study for a few hours a day.

Also, if teens would only study on a consistent and regular basis and complete their coursework on time, then they could mitigate the stress of exams and grades greatly.

School was so stressful for me that when i was 14 i took a huge overdose so that i wouldnt have to go in. School can be very difficult for a lot of people especially the ones that dont 'fit in' with the rest. I suppose everyone can cope in different ways, fair play to you for getting a masters degree :smile:

 

[Esmeralda]

Hi Daisy What made it so stressful for you? The work or the other students or both?

 

[Petal]

Hi Daisy What made it so stressful for you? The work or the other students or both?

It was everything, I didn't have many friends because I wasn't trendy and popular like everyone else. The teachers bullied me even though I was a good student and got good grades. They told me I was naive and gullible and should learn to act normal like the 'popular students'. I was extremely shy and unconfident, had very low self esteem,I hated school so i left at age 15. I have since educated myself at home though. I attempted suicide just before I left school, i think if i hadnt left i would have attempted again...so basically yea I think school is definitely one of the reasons that teenagers commit suicide.

 

[BioHomocide]

I'm a teenager and I don't really think just because I am 19 it makes me any more prone to depression. I was never the kind of teen to throw everything to the wind and have fun or do stupid things just because I could. I have always thought things through and have planned most of what I do and how I spend my time. It gets complicated comparing all teens because not all teens just want to do stupid things, and it always depends on what your definition of what a stupid thing is.

If I have to say what I assume about why teenagers get depressed I would say because life is hard and we can't always get what we want even if we try our best and give it 110%. Teenagers are still growing and understanding that the world isn't fair and you have to fight to survive; or they could be worrying about other things like their love life or failing geometry. Teenagers are pretty much adults from the age of 15, life starts to hit them hard and not everyone can take the punches.

 

[Esmeralda]

It was everything, I didn't have many friends because I wasn't trendy and popular like everyone else. The teachers bullied me even though I was a good student and got good grades. They told me I was naive and gullible and should learn to act normal like the 'popular students'. I was extremely shy and unconfident, had very low self esteem,I hated school so i left at age 15. I have since educated myself at home though. I attempted suicide just before I left school, i think if i hadnt left i would have attempted again...so basically yea I think school is definitely one of the reasons that teenagers commit suicide.

Did your parents have anything to say about this? I hope to be in a position to send my children to a private school if necessary. The public schools where I live are great, but if my child has experiences like bullying from a teacher and it cannot be resolved, I want to be able to send them to an alternative school.

That said, I do think it is up to the parents to instill enough confidence in their children to lessen the impact of such things. I know that when I had things like that happen to me (and they did, often) my Dad would stick up for me, go and speak to the teacher, or just plain tell me she was an idiot, so it never really affected my self-esteem greatly because I had a great support system behind me to back me up. This is very important, IMO.

 

[Esmeralda]

I'm a teenager and I don't really think just because I am 19 it makes me any more prone to depression. I was never the kind of teen to throw everything to the wind and have fun or do stupid things just because I could. I have always thought things through and have planned most of what I do and how I spend my time. It gets complicated comparing all teens because not all teens just want to do stupid things, and it always depends on what your definition of what a stupid thing is.

If I have to say what I assume about why teenagers get depressed I would say because life is hard and we can't always get what we want even if we try our best and give it 110%. Teenagers are still growing and understanding that the world isn't fair and you have to fight to survive; or they could be worrying about other things like their love life or failing geometry. Teenagers are pretty much adults from the age of 15, life starts to hit them hard and not everyone can take the punches.

A very astute observation. I agree completely.

 

[TheLonelyAloePlant]

Maybe teenagers are depressed, or at least the ones that are clinically depressed are the ones that know that no one gives a shit about them? Or the ones that have little to no friends? People can be homeless and happy.
What goes in most depressed peoples' mind is torture. Going through every damned day trying not to put a knife to your throat and put a bullet through your skull, oh it's easy. I can just say, "Oh, I'll grow up and this won't ever happen again."

Depression will never leave me.