Suicides in the modern world

REPORT

The Object of the report is: Suicides in the modern world.
The Aim is to make a review on scientific literature.
The Problem of the report is: The main causes of suicide; people’s condition who usually make it.

Research methods used: I used closed questions because they allow respondents to answer the question very quickly, not using much time. In reason that findings would be more reliable I choose random sample. The majority of my respondents were students. There were 25 respondents, 68% of thhem were females and 32% males. The average of their age was 20. The official documents were used to compare my findings and the official statistics.
The Report deals with:
• Introduction.
• Suicide- common problem in the whole world.
• Thinking about suicide is commonplace.
• The rate of suicide among youth.
• Youth and suicide in the United States.
• Findings/ results.
• Conclusion.
• Additional material

Introduction. The number of suicides is growing every year, like new technologies becoming no longer new. As the suicides number is growing, the government needs to create some new prrograms to prevent them. Although, the government spends much money for prevention of suicides every year, people cannot notice the influence which was made. If we want to stop self- murderers frustrate not just their own life, but also their fa

amily’s and friends, both the society and the government have to find the way how to prevent the modern world’s people destroy the humanity.

Suicides in the modern world

Suicide is becoming more common in the whole world. Suicide is an act, when person leaves this world by his/her own will. Although suicide is not the major fact of mortality but many people leave life in this way. Human does not like to talk about self- murders and opinion of them is negative, that is why it is very difficult to base on statistics. The world organization of health define suicide as action, which is deliberate invent with free-will and made by person’s own initiative, which ends with death. Lithuania is in onne of the first places by suicides. It is very urgent problem over there. People from different social groups make a suicide every day. The modern world not just brings new good things, like medicines to recover from some diseases but it brings new requirements for people as well. People feel squeezed up in the “corner”, they feel depressed. It is not hard to see why serious depression and suicide are connected. Serious depression (with both major depression and bipolar il

llness) involves a long-lasting sad mood that doesn’t let up, and a loss of pleasure in things you once enjoyed. It also involves thoughts about death, negative thoughts about oneself, and a sense of worthlessness, a sense of hopelessness that things could get better, low energy and noticeable changes in appetite or sleep. Serious depression can cause suicide.
Thinking about suicide is commonplace. In his book Suicide, published in 1988, Earl A. Grollman says “Almost everybody at one time or another contemplates suicide” (Second Edition, Beacon Press, p. 2). In his book Suicide: The Forever Decision, published in 1987, psychologist Paul G. Quinnett, Ph.D., says “Research has shown that a substantial majority of people have considered suicide at one time in their lives, and I mean considered it seriously” (Continuum, p. 12). Nevertheless, thinking about suicide is generally speaking frowned upon and by itself is enough to result in involuntary “hospitalization” and so-called treatment in a psychiatric “hospital”, particularly if the person in question thinks about suicide seriously and refuses (so-called) outpatient psychotherapy to get this thinking changed. The fact that people are incarcerated in America for thinking and talking about suicide implies that despite what the U.S. Constitution says about free speech, and despite cllaims Americans often make about America being a free country, many if not most Americans do not really believe in freedom of thought and speech – in addition to rejecting an individual’s right to commit suicide.
The overall rate of suicide among youth has declined slowly since 1992. However, rates remain unacceptably high. Adolescents and young adults often experience stress, confusion, and depression from situations occurring in their families, schools, and communities. Such feelings can overwhelm young people and lead them to consider suicide as a “solution.” Few schools and communities have suicide prevention plans that include screening, referral, and crisis intervention programs for youth. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24. In 2001, 3,971 suicides were reported in this group. Of the total number of suicides among ages 15 to 24 in 2001, 86% were male and 14% were female. American Indian and Alaskan Natives have the highest rate of suicide in the 15 to 24 age group.
In the United States, more than four times as many male youth die by suicide, but girls attempt suicide more often and report higher rates of depression. The gender difference in suicide completion is most likely due to the differences in suicide methods. Men are more likely to usse firearms, which lead to a fatal outcome 78% to 90% of the time. Girls and women in all countries are more likely than males to ingest poisons. In countries where poisons are highly lethal and/or where treatment resources are scarce, more females complete suicide than males. Suicide is extremely rare in young children, and the suicide rate among 10-to-14 year olds, while increasing rapidly, is still much lower than the rate for older teens. Younger children may be less likely to complete suicide because they do not have the cognitive ability to plan and carry out a suicide attempt, but research also suggests that the increase in suicide rates with age may be due to the increased likelihood of exposure to critical risk factors, such as serious depression and drugs and alcohol, with age. Studies have found that for younger children exposed to such risk factors, the suicide rate is similar to that for older teens. In 1998, white males accounted for 61% of all suicides among youth 10-19, and white males and white females together accounted for over 84% of all youth suicides. However, the suicide rate among Native American male youth is exceedingly high in comparison with the overall rate for males 10 to 19 (19.3 per 100,000 vs. 8.5 per 100,000). The suicide rate has been increasing most rapidly among African American males ages 10 to 19 – more than doubling from 2.9 per 100,000 to 6.1 per 100,000 from 1981 to 1998. Finally, a National survey of high school students in 1999 found that Hispanic students, both male and female, were significantly more likely than white students to have reported a suicide attempt (12.8% vs. 6.7%). Among Hispanic students, females (18.9%) were almost three times more likely than males (6.6%) to have reported a suicide attempt. The most likely explanation for ethnic rate differences is variations in cultural factors that promote or inhibit suicide. It has been widely reported in the media that gay and lesbian youth are at higher risk to complete suicide than other youth and that a significant percent of all attempted or completed youth suicides are related to issues of sexual identity. However, there are no national statistics for suicide completion rates among gay, lesbian or bisexual persons, and in the few studies examining risk factors for suicide completion where an attempt was made to assess sexual orientation, the risk for gay or lesbian persons did not appear any greater than among heterosexuals, once mental and substance abuse disorders were taken into account. With regard to suicide attempts, several state and national studies have reported that high school students who report to engaging in homosexual or bisexual activity have higher rates of suicide thoughts and attempts compared to youth with heterosexual experience. Experts have not been in complete agreement about the best way to measure reports of adolescent suicide attempts or sexual orientation, however, so the data are subject to question. Clearly, further research is needed in this area.
The findings which I got were not exactly the same as in the official statistics.45% of respondents wrote and said that the main reason of suicide is psychical problems, 35% – couple of reasons, 15% – alcoholism, 5%- did not know. 95% of respondents said that they did not notice the government’s efforts to prevent suicides. 5%- did not know, they are not interested in this topic.85% of females answered that men are on higher risk to self- murders than women, 56% of males- that women. 56% answered that persons who talk about suicide never do it. 14%- people make a self- murder without warning. There are official data of suicides’ reasons (in the table).

71% of respondents answered that elders who age about 40 make more suicides than teenagers.15%- teenagers; 12%- people about 60; 2%- did not know.
There is official statistic.

People who are unemployed are on the highest risk of suicide- 98% of respondents answered, 2%- did not answer. The same percent of respondents answered that Lithuania takes first place by suicides. And the majority was right.
To conclude, suicides can be made not just for one reason but for many of them. Government and society should talk about it more because many people really do not know where they can find help to solve problems. Lithuania has a big number of suicides because of many facts. To begin with, social workers are not qualified; they do not know how to help people and sometimes people just does not know that they exist. Furthermore, many people are unemployed.

KEYWORDS

Suicide- the act of killing yourself
Contemplate- look at thoughtfully; observe deep in thought
Commonplace- a usual or ordinary thing
Frustrate- cause feelings of discouragement
Depression- a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity
Youth- the period between childhood and adult age
Adolescent- somebody who has reached puberty but is not yet an adult
Male- a person who belongs to the sex that cannot have babies
Female- a person who belongs to the sex that can have babies
Poison- any substance that causes injury or illness or death of a living organism
Likelihood- the probability of a specified outcome
Attempt (verb) – make an effort to achieve or complete (something)
Heterosexual- someone having a sexual orientation to persons of the opposite sex
Homosexual- having a sexual attraction to persons of the same sex
Bisexual- a person who is sexually attracted to both sexes
Respondent- somebody who replies to something
Alcoholism- addiction to alcohol
Risk factor- something which increases risk or susceptibility
Complete- come or bring to a finish or an end
Hopelessness- the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success

Dictionaries:
“Alkonas”
http://www.onelook.com
Encarta Dictionary: English

References:
http://www.sociumas.lt/Eng/Nr6/savizudybe.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.save.org
http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/IASR/suicide-rates.htm