ELI5: Why do young people kill themselves so much more than other age groups?

ciaozzza · 3 months

Actually, the age group 45-64 has a much higher rate than teens to mid-20's but the teen stories definitely get more coverage and they usually are the dramatic and emotional ones.

http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=04eb7cd1-9eed-9712-89c9540afcb44481

lukejames1111 · 3 months

I don't think it's a case of younger people killing themselves more than older people, but it's more of a shock for younger people to commit suicide, hence why it will get more media coverage.

quirkiestquark · 3 months

[deleted]

32koala · 3 months

They don't.

The reason you think that is because of availability bias.

PinkyThePig · 3 months

Because when they kill themselves when they are 15 years old they are no longer alive to kill themselves at 35. Additionally if someone is suicidal its most likely some inherited affliction and by the time they hit 20 it is one of three things:

not big enough of an issue to matter
they already killed themselves
It is managed by some medication

EDIT: So apparently I'm wrong, if you scroll down a little ways you can find the correct answer to this question.

myGRUDGE · 3 months

Only the young ones are shown on TV. When an older person kills themselves, especially around the 70s, people tend to think "Well, they had a good life, it would be understandable to get it over with..."

tickostar · 3 months

Not precisely a "five year old" answer but I'll try to keep it simple:

Teenagers and younger people haven't quite finished brain development yet - that doesn't really occur until your mid twenties. They haven't quite gained a finely tuned grasp on thinking ahead, like a fully matured adult would. This often puts teens at particular risk, since they don't have the ability to look towards the future that older people would.

Also something to consider is people's personalities and varying degrees of resiliency, paired with the fact that teens and young people don't always have the skills or experience you may need to deal with a really tough situation. This comes simply from age and lack of perspective, playing into some factors that make someone more vulnerable.

In addition - teenagers and youths tend to be in much more vulnerable situations than people in, say, their 30's. A teenager is still mostly in the realm of their parents/guardians, and a person in their early-mid 20's may not quite have the skills to live on their own quite yet, meaning they are at a disadvantage for getting out of difficult situations.

That being said, there is a trend of suicide amongst the elderly, mostly amongst older men. However, their reasons tend to vary widely from younger generations.

punkwalrus · 3 months

Part of the reason is lack of experience. I just had this conversation this weekend with someone young, discussing how suicide is just a depressing end that only pisses off the people who care about you.

You're young,. You're 14, and you have had 14 years of experience, where maybe the last 5 are fairly memorable. In that 5 year period, you're living through new emotions brought on by puberty, advancing social skills, and loss of innocence. You have a very narrow window of experience with little to go by to compare it to. If you don't have a supporting environment, you'll be convinced that when something changes, it's changed for good, and doesn't get any better.

By your 30s, you start to see patterns. You begin to know, from personal experience, that killing yourself isn't worth it. You know those that killed themselves are not remembered as tragic heroes, but idiots, if they are remembered at all. You know things, eventually, get better. And killing yourself is sealing the deal that things won't get better.

I was suicidal as a teen. I attempted suicide 5 times, and came close to death twice. In my case, parents didn't give a shit. As a teen, this hurt me because I expected my parents to care and was very upset they did not. Now in my 40s, I realize they were broken people. Luckily, some other people in my life DID care.

When I was 16, my math partner killed herself when she wrecked her parents' car. Tara was a girl who was a bit airheaded and pretty, but very social and well-liked. While Tara survived the wreck with barely a bruise, she was so upset her parents would punish her, she took a bunch of pills and jumped off her 16th floor balcony, hit a balcony on the 9th floor, and spun to the pavement all in front of her best friend who was rushing to see her after Tara said she had taken the pills. Her friend had to be hospitalized for stress after witnessing that. Tara's parents opened the funeral up to the entire school, which meant everyone took the day off "to attend the funeral" which most did not. In fact, Tara's death became a huge joke. Later, we had another girl, Amy, slit her wrists in biology class, and died because everyone freaked out. By the time sanity was restored and someone had the brains to call 911, Amy had bled to death. An these are how I remember these people. Not "Tara the singer who made it big," or "Amy, the goth kid who went on to be a doctor..." but anecdotes on a Reddit forum.

My own mother took her life when I was 18, and at that point, I was homeless. I knew two people who killed themselves and left children and a grieving spouse behind. Suicide jumpers on the Metro kill the commute for tens of thousands of people that day. I have seen how suicide is called "a selfish act" because everyone else has to deal with the mess.

But at 14, 18, 20? You just see the world as some tragedy up against you. Your emotions, still fresh and raw, make what I call in my 40s "time to pass" as "an eternity" instead. Oh, your girlfriend from high school, who said she'd be with you forever, really meant it at the time. But after a year after high school, you both continue to change, and now you don't have that in common anymore. So she breaks up with you. She was your only true love for the last 4 years, which may have been 100% of your love life, and represented 80% of your known emotional universe... that hurts like a motherfucker, and you don't personally know that you can survive this. You had no plans "beyond." So you kill yourself as a reset mechanism because you feel there's no point.

But in your 40s if you lose a girlfriend of 4 years, it's an entirely different set of emotional skills you have. You'll be hurt, and cry, and maybe get piss drunk with some friends. But you know it's happened before, and you can get back up. True, some may ask, "when will my TRUE love happen?" and kill themselves as "the final straw," but that's far less likely, statistically.

sturmeh · 3 months

That's obvious, all the older would-be suiciders have already suicided.

RivetheadGirl · 3 months

The idea that younger adults commit more suicides is not supported by the data available.

The largest group of people who commonly commit suicide are elderly (+75yo) white males. on average elderly adults are 18% of active suicides. (see source)
As a nursing student we are taught suicide risks and signs for the elderly as as part of mental health care. There is even a suicide warning check list for the elderly.

Study: SUICIDE IN OLDER ADULTS: NURSING ASSESSMENT OF SUICIDE RISK

MrCowz · 3 months

Because Fuck high school.

econguy · 3 months

Do they? Let me check. Time Passes Actually, they don't. Suicides peak in the middle years and then in the very late years.

http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html#2005

Malfeasant · 3 months

there are a lot of interesting theories here- but i'd like to point out, younger people killing themselves is a relatively new phenomenon, it has increased significantly since the 1950s- http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html#death-rates

so the question is, what has changed?

CleverReference · 3 months

Teenagers' brains haven't fully developed yet (specifically those parts dealing with judgement, long-term thinking, and impulse control). In psychology, there are two factors common to most adolescents:

personal fable: the tendency to overestimate the uniqueness of one's feelings ("Nobody understands me", "Nobody has ever felt this kind of love before", etc, etc)
imaginary audience: overestimating judgement by others; studies have been done where teens consistently over-judge how much people notice their appearance, etc.

These factors, in my opinion, also play a role; usually teens lack the perspective needed to understand their feelings + ton o' hormones and shit.

Holyshinobi · 3 months

This assumption is actually wrong. The highest rate of suicide in the US is white males age 85+ according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Older adults are at a much higher risk than young people. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml The elderly are often sick, lonely, and depressed and have the means to end their lives. They may not have anyone in their lives at all, so the guilt factor is nonexistent.

BeanerBoyBrandon · 3 months

Why don't more suicidal people do something crazy first like rob a bank or kill someone famous? If they fail they can just kill themselves

volocom7 · 3 months

Come on guys he's 5....it's the boogie man

zenophobicgoat · 3 months

That's the age hormones and/or neuro-chemical imbalances kick in. There are ways to cope with these things, but the closer to the original onset, the more the person experiencing it feels like a freak or an anomaly. Part of the experience naturally limits one's ability or inclination to talk about it, seek treatment, etc. As you get older, you realize that we've all more or less in the same boat. Anything that separates you from the bulk of human experience should be dealt with, and no one will hold it against you for dealing with it. Everyone wants to be happy and see their peers flourish. The older you get, the more universal you find people's subjective experiences to be. Even if they can't directly relate to what you've been through, everyone has some kind of experience that has alienated them from the herd, has learned from it, and has found a middle path where they can both be understood and maintain their individuality. The older you get, the more you realize that a) you are the only one who can determine your level of happiness; b) if that sounds like placating, condescending, self-help bullshit, you are the only one who can set an alternate path towards your own self-definition.

GaGaORiley · 3 months

People in that age range are, for one, more self-centered and more emotional than those with a few more years under their belt (the one with the onion).

People who are somewhat older are more likely to have kids, and feel that they can't leave the children behind.

After kids are raised, they are more likely to have the perspective that they've survived through a lot of crap already - including raising the kids ;) - and so can surely get through this latest rough patch.

I'd think that some years from now, I will once again feel hopeless and wish to end it all, but by then I'll be in a nursing home and someone will be monitoring me so that I can't pull it off.

Almond_sorrows · 3 months

because they don't have experience dealing with emotional issues. The highs and lows seem much more drastic if you don't have a frame of reference. Every slight or embarrassment seems like the end of the world to a teenager and then you factor in the percentage for legitimate psychological problems and things get crazy.

seainhd · 3 months

people from older age groups do commit suicide quite a bit, but compared to how many old people die from hamburgers, it only seems small.

i suggest people interested in the topic listen to this freakonomics podcast about suicide

jpstamper · 3 months

The strongest emotion is the familiar. The most difficult thing for people to do is change or accept changes happening around them.

RFEngineer · 3 months

When you are young, you have less people affected by your suicide. It's much harder to kill yourself when you have a wife and kids to leave behind.

TheNessman · 3 months

Because old people gave up. young people refuse to.

discworldian · 3 months

It's not that they kill themselves more, it's that it's a more likely cause of death in that age group.

Older age groups die of causes that won't pop up much.

rednukleus · 3 months

They have spent less time in the world. They are less accustomed to it, and less jaded. They have fewer memories and have fewer people depending on them, so they have less emotional investment in the world.

seanwall · 3 months

Because the future looks long, boring, and/or sad.

cgiall420 · 3 months

lack of perspective. Not to make light of it, but to younger people, minor problems can seem insurmountable. Older people are more experienced and realize that life goes on (even if they have less of it to correct whatever has gone wrong).

ProlapsedPineal · 3 months

Pain is like time in our ability to cope with it.

Remember when you were a kid and heard "wait an hour" and it felt like forever? Well, it's similar with a pain scale. When you're 15 a breakup feels like the end of the world. At 35 it still hurts but you've already been through so much shit you know it will get better, and you also probably have more reasons to live - people who depend on you.

Trust me, I'm a doctor of time and pain.

Juz16 · 3 months

They can't escape...

If they're suicidal and old enough to do something, they'll usually just try to make something of themselves.

15 year olds can't go skydiving or something to try and feel better...

This is probably wrong, but has been my experience so far.

Mun-Mun · 3 months

Maybe once you get to a certain age it's like "meh, might as well ride it out" rather than bailing earlier.

Offenbach · 3 months

In Les Invasion Barbares Remy, a dying man, is conversing with a nurse and says something along the lines of "It's quite paradoxical, but living grows on you. That is why all the martyrs are young. They haven't yet found anything to live for."

ThisGuy182 · 3 months

They don't.

emilybr · 3 months

Mommies and Daddies stub their toes a lot more than babies, but no one wants to kiss their boo boo as much.

Cahcah · 3 months

According to the US National Institute of Mental Health, suicide has risen rapidly in the top 10 causes of death in all age groups, but particularly so in the elderly populations. Youth get more media attention regarding suicide, however it is much more prevalent (and successful) in the 45+ age group.

Edit: Also, the suicide rates are also extremely high in those who have just been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Factoid there.

Poodler · 3 months

Well. We mostly see them because they're rather unusual, or at the very least, kind of sensational. News outlets report on them a lot because they're very jolting!

Adults between their 40's and 60's are quite common, but they don't generate the "Young life snuffed out!" headline.

RajinIII · 3 months

Thank you to everyone for the abundance of answers, I feel more knowledgeable about this now.

SSG_Schwartz · 3 months

When you are young, you haven't learned that sometimes you have to wait. Young people want things now. For example, at five years old, if you have to wait a year until Christmas, that is 20% of your life. Bad things seem to last a lot longer when you are young.

As a young person, you have not learned how to communicate your feelings. You can show people how you feel, but you can't describe how you feel. To show this as a two year old, if you don't like the gruel you have for breakfast, you push your plate to the floor. As an adult, you would simply ask for eggs instead of gruel.

As a young person, you haven't learned that there are consequences for your actions. When you turn ten years old, you may want to ride your neighbor's bicycle, but it is locked inside a garage. So you break into the garage and take the bicycle. You don't see this as wrong because you haven't learned that what you did can hurt your neighbor. (Comes home, finds bike missing, has to call cops to get bike back because it cost a lot of money.)

When you are young, you want to fit in. You want to be as cool as the coolest person you know. So you see some person you think is cool has died and you see that person gets a lot of attention you think you should get. A very famous musician killed himself with a shotgun when I was just past my teens. A lot of people were scared that many other teens would do the same thing when they saw all the attention he got.

To make this easy for you, the young person to understand, young people don't have a lot of life experiences to compare this challenge to, they want a fix for the problem now, and they think that by doing something they can get the attention from death that they could not get in life.

Hopefully, when they get older, they learn how to talk about feelings and how to use their personal strength to get through the hard times.

1-800-273-TALK and 1-800-SUICIDE

Latati9 · 3 months

Did you just watch Glee?

chilehead · 3 months

When you're a teen or in your early 20's getting dumped by someone you've known for 2-3 months is devastating. When you're in your later 20's and later, eh, no big deal. The younger you are, the more overwhelming every setback and obstacle seems.

DownvotesGetMeHorny · 3 months

Because we have no prospects, no job outlooks and the older generations are fucking everything up. Older generations also had it easier in the sense that not everybody had to go to college because they were told they'd be "flipping burgers at mcdonalds", you weren't pressured for a white collar job, and you could live on one household income.

AllGrayEryDay · 3 months

I know this is an uncommon opinion, but I feel suicide is just one other form of natural selection

mlatour · 3 months

Teens have little life experience with overcoming difficulties and tend to think in black/white either/or terms.

So they make poor decisions in difficult emotional situations.

45 to 64 yrs old - go for it, I say. Everyone should have the right to go. Maybe they can sell tickets and raise some money for the family. Imagine the TV and uTube rights for the 'best' dive from an Office Tower with points for style and accuracy, and the in advance grieving family lined up in the splash down area.

The one thing I would like to see eliminated is the murder of close family and relationship people before going to the Big Beyond.

Those self appointed judges should target Rick Saint Torum the self appointed guardian of fucked up people and credit this Reddit Rant as the cause.

So there can be a bill called the Reddit Elimination and Deletion of Dangerous Internet Themes which will give Homeland Security the obligation to monitor every post on the web for the words in suicide notes.

Quick - call Kim Kardashian and ask her if she wants to star in a new reality show.

guitar2adam · 3 months

NIH reported that the brain is not fully developed until around the age of 25. Perhaps the fully matured brain is more capable of dealing with stress.

AAJD · 3 months

They have less responsibilities in life and therefore feel that society has less to lose without them (and less to gain with them). This, coupled with feeling suicidal at such a young and naive age, a lot of the time actually leads to suicide.

Isunova · 3 months

I used to be suicidal...

..but then I went to University. Now I want to live forever.

fightslikeacow · 3 months

Young people are stupid.

WildSeanAppeared · 3 months

[deleted]

cricketpants · 3 months

Your brain changes as you get older. You also get more freedom as life progresses. You tend to get happier as you get older.

Group	Number	Per Day	Rate per 100,000	% of Deaths
Total	30,622	83.9	10.8	1.3
Males	24,672	67.6	17.6	2.1
Females	5,950	16.3	4.1	0.5
Whites	27,710	75.9	11.9	1.3
Nonwhites	2,912	8.0	5.6	0.9
Blacks	1,957	5.4	5.3	0.7
Elderly (65+ yrs.)	5,393	14.8	15.3	0.3
Young (15-24 yrs.)	3,971	10.9	9.9	12.3

you'll need to login or register to do that

create a new account

login