Monday, March 7, 2005

The Essay
Suicide


Many factors lead to suicide. Many are listed even if they are not thoroughly explained. From bullying to depression, from pressure to music, from school to media, the list ranges in many areas. The most common choice of a cause of suicide is stress or depression. Another is accessibility to weapons, such as guns, in the home. Thomas Joiner, the FSU's Bright-Burton Professor of Psychology, came up with many conclusions based on Edwin Shneidman's theory of "psychache", which is one of today's most in depth studies as to why people commit suicide (Pool). Many more follow, but are not as detailed in their vindication. All of these causes affect people of all ages.

At least one out of five people will become depressed at some point in their lives. Many get over it quickly, but there are a few who do not. Many of the people who commit suicide because of depression are people who are diagnosed with "severe or manic depression". Manic depression is a form of depression serious enough that a patient may feel that the only way out of their pain and suffering is death. Quite a large percent of overall suicides are people who have a family history of depression. Surveys show that as many as 60 percent of all high school students have thought about their own death or about killing themselves. In addition, one out of every ten high school students experience some form of severe depression during the high school years. Clinical depression harms in both psychological and emotional way. To be diagnosed with clinical depression, it must last at least two weeks and have at least five of the following symptoms: lack of concentration, feelings of hopelessness, eating habit changes, sleep troubles, loss of energy, behavioral changes (restlessness and agitation), risk-taking behavior, changes in schoolwork and/or work habits, and thoughts of suicide. The pain of depression can be far more overwhelming, more incapacitating, than any physical pain. Death is the only relief in some minds, whether it is self-inflicted or accidental (Slaby).

Many people believe that if someone did not have access to a weapon, then they would never commit suicide. The recent increase of accessibility to guns in the home seems to coincide with the increasing rate of suicide performed with a firearm. More than 17,000 Americans die annually from self-inflicted firearm injuries. Using a gun to commit suicide almost always results in death, while other methods, such as poisoning, are not always lethal (Educational Availability). Many articles and studies about impulsive teenage actions point out that with easy access to such a deadly weapon are a lethal combination.

Fourteen years after his own father committed suicide, Thomas Joiner turned his attention to the question of why people kill themselves. He found it to be a field that had been largely overlooked by mainstream psychology. Though more than 30,000 Americans kill themselves each year, relatively few psychologists have studied the topic directly. "Most psychologists see suicide as a part of a larger problem--depression and other mood disorders. A second reason that suicide has gotten relatively little attention from psychology," Joiner suggests, "is the stigma and fear associated with it. Rational people get irrational when they talk about things like this." Joiner followed the research of Edwin Shneidman, a prominent "thanatologist", or suicide research, at UCLA. Shneidman wrote that suicide resulted from intractable emotional pain. This pain, called "psychache" by Shneidman, gets so bad that a person prefers death over life. Shneidman also claims that most suicidal people can be put into one out of five groups classified by different needs, such as the need to be lover, the need to belong, and the need to strike first. Joiner points out that self-preservation is a basic human instinct. People would try very hard to avoid causing themselves pain and harm. "The thought of, say, cutting or asphyxiating oneself is very upsetting and difficult to contemplate for most people. And that," Joiner says, "is precisely why relatively few people commit suicide out of all those who think about it." "People who actually kill themselves," he suggests, "have (obviously) managed to beat down the survival instinct and fear of pain and suffering." His entire theory continues, but the amount of research Joiner has performed is phenomenal (Pool).

There are many lesser causes of suicide, some of which may not even be true. Bullying, school, peer pressure, music, religious fanaticism, media, working at a young age, grief, bereavement, other mood disorders, etc. are just some of the lesser causes of suicide. None are really thoroughly explained with an unbiased opinion, but have been brought up in studies about suicide.


WORKS CITED

Dunne, Edward J. "Depression Can Lead to Suicide." Current Controversies Spring 1998. Opposing Viewpoints. 25 Jan. 2005.

Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "The Availability of Guns in the Home Contributes to Teen Suicide." At Issue 31 May 1995. Opposing Viewpoints. 25 Jan. 2005.

Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "Gun Control Would Help Prevent Suicide." 31 May. 1995. Opposing Viewpoints. 25 Jan. 2005.

Johnson, Mark. "Probing the Suicidal Mind." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 12 July 2004. SIRS Researcher. ProQuest Information and Learning. 25 Jan. 2005 .

Kuntz, Raymond, Sam Brownback,
Joseph Lieberman. "Heavy Metal Music Contributes to Teen Suicide." At Issue 6 Nov. 1997. Opposing Viewpoints. 14 Jan. 2005.

Pool, Robert. "The Why of It All." Florida State University Research in Review Winter 2004. ProQuest Information and Learning. SIRS Researcher. 25 Jan. 2005.

Rios, Delia M. "The Extent of Homosexual Teen Suicide is Exaggerated." At Issue 17 May 1998. Opposing Viewpoints. 14 Jan. 2005.

Slaby, Andrew E., Lili Frank Garfinkel. "Depression Contributes to Suicide." At Issue 2000. Opposing Viewpoints. 25 Jan. 2005.

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