Suicide Contagion Is The Cause Of Suicide In Teens

Suicide is the act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally. "As many as 90% of suicide victims have a diagnosable and treatable mental disorder, such as major depression and alcohol or drug abuse(Adams)." Factors that cause teens to commit suicide are also factors that lead teens and other individuals to commit suicide clusters. According to Dr. David Litts, along with the risk factors, an event such as a loss of a loved one or school troubles can trigger suicide in teens. These events will cause the vulnerable individuals to feel a sense of shame, humiliation or despair. Teens and individuals who are already experiencing those kinds of events and feelings are more likely to commit suicide by the exposure of a …show more content…
The term suicide contagion is used by scientists and public health officials to describe the spread of suicidal thoughts among a group of people that results in copycat acts, such as suicide clusters(Adams). “Contagion is the process in which the death by suicide of an individual influences an increase in the suicides of others(Poland)." Media coverage has been identified as an increasing factor of the suicide contagion. Researchers have studied and are currently studying suicide clusters to identify how the contagion might spread(Adams). After the CDC was brought to Santa Clara County, California to help with the suicide cluster occurrences in Palo Alto, they found that high school students who had considered suicide were found to have many traits in common; they were much more likely to have missed school in the last month, experienced bullying, used alcohol or drugs in the past, engaged in binge drinking recently or to have identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual(Chawla and Njoo)." After an investigation the CDC released preliminary findings and revealed that mental health problems, recent crises and problems at school were all major factors in the suicides of 232 youths in Santa Clara County(Chawla and