This is a serious topic. As such, it’s going to be brief and to the point. While the matter baffles many people, it’s not that difficult to understand when you analyze it objectively.
And, it’s not going to go away, either, until people at all levels begin to grasp the notion that every problem can’t be solved by erecting fences and putting up signs.
This past week a couple of teenage girls were struck and killed by a high-speed Acela train. It happened at the Norwood, PA borough train station Thursday morning. They were walking across a train trestle when it happened.
I’ve ridden that section of track many times—aboard the R2 commuter on my way to the University of Pennsylvania. There is virtually no room on either side of the tracks on that trestle even if people try to jump out of the way at the last second.
Mind you, I’m not blaming anyone other than people that should NOT have been on those tracks. But, I’m going to address a factor involved with this story: teenage suicide.
These were kids, high school sophomores… 15-year-olds, practically toddlers compared to my age. The latest report, linked below, confirms a suicide pact. Crazy? YES, at least by adult logic it was.
I’m not going to rehash the news items here. You can read the entire saga for yourselves. Just click here (initial report), here (suicide suspected), and here (suicide confirmed).
Young people taking their own lives is devastating, especially teenagers. Sometimes they do it because they’ve reached a point of perceived hopelessness so severe that they view suicide as the only way out.
At other times, they are so deeply saddened that suicide seems like a logical way to rejoin loved ones or special friends that have died. And, at other times—perhaps more often than we may know—they do it in a misguided attempt at “leveling” the score.
When I lived in California, I once read a suicide note from a 15-year-old boy to his father (a colleague of mine). It read; “Dad, are you happy now?” His father never fully recovered. He had refused to let the boy go steady with a 14-year-old classmate.
The reasons for teenage suicide may well be legion, but regardless of the reason, an underlying enabler relative to teenage suicide is a lack of proper perspective. As well, an ever-present and trusty companion to lacking proper perspective is the unintentional propensity on the part of many adults for not recognizing it.
The teen suicide rate is high. It’s the third leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). And, teenage girls think about it and do it almost two and a half times more often than boys do.
Gender aside, though, the commonality among ALL teens is a general lack of sufficient life-experiences to view problems in relative terms.
On the other hand, the average adult is capable of viewing even some of the most perplexing situations as issues of temporal duration. They view suicide as a permanent solution to temporary problems.
“This, too, will pass” has meaning for most experienced older people but not for susceptible teens. They simply lack the life experiences that are so necessary to believe it.
Another, often overlooked problem is that some teens, especially the early years—and I think 15-years is quite early—don’t fully grasp the permanency of the act. Once undertaken, you don’t get to change your mind.
As well, in an unintentional way, religion may play a role. And, in no way do I warrant this as either a validation for or a condemnation of religion of any sort.
It’s quite possible that we’d be experiencing even higher teen suicide rates if not for the general religious mandate that suicide is a “sin,” punishable by anywhere from a severe Divine butt chewing to an eternal time out to be spent in that fire-engulfed pit called hell.
Conversely, it’s also quite possible that we’d be experiencing a lower rate if religious denominations would attach a disclaimer to what they believe, something like:
“While we fervently believe in God and His gift of eternal life for those that follow Him, we caution that these are matters of faith, not fact. Therefore we urge due diligence before undertaking irreversible actions, especially suicide. While you may well end up in a ‘better’ place, it is also possible that you may simply cease to exist in any form other than inanimate decaying matter.”
My personal suspicion is that, if anything can, the latter would be more effective at reducing the number of teen suicides than would be the former one.
Fear of Divine retribution isn’t going to do much to dissuade teenagers from committing suicide that’s motivated by the utter hopelessness that is born in the pit of indescribable depression. Their pain has become overwhelming and they’ll simply take their chances that God will understand and let them slide.
But, for those kids in the mold of the boy in California—and I suspect there’s more of them than we’re willing to admit—the very notion that they may not even be around to witness the sorrow they’ve wrought on those that loved them… well, they may just find a more productive way!
The True Facts 