Cooper Smith English 2 3/15/12 Suicide Is Not The Answer Suicide is a very big issue in todays society.
Suicide is the act of deliberately killing oneself. For a death to be considered suicide, it must be caused by hurting ones self or from allowing ones self to be fatally harmed (Kaslow). Take 13-year-old, Ryan Patrick Halligan as an example. Ryan committed suicide after his many years of bullying. Halligan began to experience severe bullying during the beginning of seventh grade, where he chatted with one of the popular girls at his school online. The relationship went bad as the girl mocked him when he walked up to her. He even told the girl on the Internet, "its girls like you that make me want to kill myself." Without any clues, Halligan successfully committed suicide on October 7, 2003 (Ryan Halligan). Suicide is a common cause for adolescent death and there are extreme consequences on how this act affects your family and friends.
Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States. In 2000, 30,000 suicides were recorded and this number continues to increase yearly. The numbers of suicides committed vary by the gender, race and ages (Suicide). That is too many innocent people killing themselves a year. Twenty percent of high school students have seriously thought about attempting suicide in the past year. The rate of suicide is almost eleven suicides in every 100,000 teens ages fifteen to nineteen (Sperekas). That is a large number of adolescent deaths, too many for my liking. People struggling with suicidal thoughts need to understand that things do get better. They need to learn how to cope with and work through depression to rid
themselves of these destructive thoughts. Suicide has extreme consequences and is not the only way out of a difficult situation.
Some people feel like suicide is the only way to get through a difficult or stressful situation, and I find this extremely sad. People should not give up and try to work harder to find a solution. After all, there is always tomorrow and we should not ruin our chances to make things right (Teens Are Particularly at Risk for Suicide). Life is beautiful and we should view it as a gift. Life is a reward that needs to be appreciated and cherished. Hundreds of other people on their deathbeds are wishing for a chance at life; this gift should not be wasted. Life has its struggles but people need to learn how to cope with these struggles because their issues can impact the lives of others.
No one should commit suicide; instead someone who is thinking of harming himself should look and see how this act would negatively affect his family and friends. Cluster suicides can occur when a person knows someone who has committed suicide and then copies the act due to feelings of sadness and grief. (Sperekas). Everyone needs to realize that they are loved, even if they do not currently feel it. Finding out a loved one has committed suicide can hurt and destroy friends and family, maybe even to the point of causing someone else to take their own life. If someone commits suicide, they are hurting their loved ones and making them feel sad and depressed; the same way they probably felt when they were contemplating the act. I do not think people mean to hurt a person they love. People who are depressed and in pain need to realize that they are loved, even if they do not feel that love. They should not make everyone who loves them feel terrible and depressed because they want to commit suicide.
I do realize that people have committed suicide in the past for many reasons. Some of the reasons that cause people to take their own lives are to be free from despair, madness, or pain. They have been through desperate situations, suffering through tough illnesses, or do not feel good in social situations (Suicide). However, they need to realize that just because they are feeling this pain now; it does not mean they will feel it forever. Most people have a section of life they struggle through; they just need to learn to cope with it instead of wasting their priceless life. There is help to be found everywhere, including school, home, doctors, therapists and most of all, finding a way to help themselves by not spilling their innocent blood. Suicide is a very big issue in todays society and is the eleventh leading cause of adolescent death. There is no reason for someone to take away his or her beautiful life. There are extreme consequences to suicide, other than taking ones life. Suicide also hurts loved ones and can destroy amazing people. Even if the individual feels terrible there are ways to learn to cope with these feelings. People need to learn how to hold on and wait for the day when they will finally feel free of their depression. Hang on and wait for the day when they can truly be the best person they can be.
Works Cited Jellinek, Michael S. Teens Are Particularly at Risk for Suicide. Suicide 39 (2005): 25. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ ViewpointsDetailsPage/ ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=true& prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ301 0164262&mode=view>. Kaslow, Nadine J., and Sara E. Dunn. Suicide. World Book Student. N.p., 2012. Web. 7 Mar. 2012. <http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar538460&st=suicide>. Ryan Halligan. Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society. N.p., 2012. Web. 6 Mar. 2012. <http://issues.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1086081?terms=suicide>. Sperekas, Nicole B. Suicidewise: Taking Steps Against Teen Suicide. N.p.: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2000. Print. Williams-Boyd, Pat. Suicide. ABC-CLIO. N.p., 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://issues.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1098038?terms=suicide>.
