If the trend continues, 50,000 suicides will
have occurred in this country by the end of this year. Ten thousand of
this number will be committed by young people between the ages of 15 and
34. Suicide is the second greatest killer among those between the ages
of 13 and 19. The rate has tripled since 1955. From 1960 to 1980,
suicides have increased 136 percent -- up 200 percent over the past 10
years. For every suicide that is successful, 50 fail in their attempt.
During September and October of last year,
six teenagers in the Clear Lake area (suburb of Houston, Texas)
committed suicide. One month later, across the ship channel from Clear
Lake, a 14-year-old girl killed herself by taking an overdose of
antihistamines. In the latter part of 1983 and the first part of 1984, a
similar epidemic occurred in Plano, Texas, where nine teenagers
committed suicide. During the first two weeks of October 1984, four
young people killed themselves in New York City. In January of this year
an Arlington High School student took his life in his drama classroom.
Why this senseless taking of life? With life's challenges and
possibilities before them, and with dreams and aspirations, yet
unfulfilled, why?
There are many contributing factors. Not all
of the causes listed in this article are involved in every suicide, but
one or more are involved in all the teenage suicides with which I am
familiar. There can be other reasons for suicide than cited below. We do
not intend to lay a burden of guilt on parents who have done all they
could for their children.
Experience of a personal loss can produce
depression so as to cause one to despair of living. It may be the loss
of a job; the loss of social standing in the community or school; the
loss of a boyfriend or girlfriend; loss of confidence, self-esteem, or
any number of things which may seem trivial and "kid stuff" to us older
folk, but is of vital importance to the young person.
The 14-year-old girl who ended her life with
antihistamines had been taken from her natural parents because of family
problems and was living with foster parents. Her natural parents had
moved to Florida without her. With the disruption of the family unit,
the severing of family ties, and feeling alone, she calmly walked to the
bathroom and swallowed 60 tablets of the allergy medicine Benadryl. She
had experienced a personal loss.
Affluence contributes to suicide. Countries
in which teenage suicides are highest are noted for their affluence. On
the surface, one would think teenagers having affluent parents, living
in affluent neighborhoods, who eat well, dress smartly, and are
supported in a generous measure would be happy and have a zest for life.
On the other hand, we would normally think
that the impoverished are the ones who grow tired in their painful
struggle for survival and prematurely exit through the door to death.
But not so. The lowest rate of suicides is found in Egypt (0.3 percent
per 100,000 population). It is not because life in Egypt is so desirable
that so few want to leave it. The opposite is true. Sweden, however,
takes care of its citizens from the womb to the tomb, yet has a suicide
rate of 18.6 percent per 100,000 population.
When young people are given everything on a
"silver platter," it deprives them of challenges essential to maturity.
With no sacrifices to make, and no challenges to meet, life can be
rather dull and boring. George S. Hendry, emeritus professor of theology
at the Princeton Theological Seminary said, "If suicide is the loss of
the will to live, the will to live requires the stimulus of resistance
to strengthen it."
Back in the 1960s, young people began to act
rebelliously and dress counter-culturally. They were trying to find
their identity, asking themselves the question, "Who am I?" Many went
out into the wilderness area and lived in tents; some built log cabins
and began to dress like their forefathers. The challenge for primitive
survival was exciting. Men carved objects out of wood, women sewed and
did the things their grandmothers and great-grandmothers did. They were
trying to get back to the soil, to their roots, and to feel good about
themselves-to have some challenges in fife. The vast majority of these
were from affluent families.
One reason why we have teenagers committing
suicide is that there are no challenges for them. Everything comes too
easily. If there are no challenges, life is not worth living.
When parents give their children everything
they ask for, they are not doing them a favor. We must teach our
children the work ethic, responsibility, and the meaning of sacrifice
that they may have a challenge to call forth their abilities toward
realization of the potential God has placed within them.
The Syndrome of Happiness and Success is
another factor in teenage suicides. The American people, by and large,
are optimistic. Our politicians are dispensers of optimism. Electronic
preachers continue to dangle the carrot of success and happiness before
their hearers. Television commercials portray young people as carefree,
happy, and successful. One could get the impression that "life is just a
bowl of cherries" and we are to go tripping "tra-la-la-la-la" through
life. It would seem that happiness is an instant thing, that all we have
to do is push a button, and presto! We are happy. Many young people grow
up with the idea that they have a divine right to happiness. When
something comes along that destroys their happiness, it oftentimes
destroys them. It may be a minor disappointment or set-back, but because
of their conception of happiness, they can't handle it. They are not
prepared to cope with the negative aspects of life. The Declaration of
Independence gives us the right to pursue happiness, but doesn't
guarantee it.
Peer pressure can tip the scales toward
death. Young people can be cruel at times by what they say and, do. We
all want to be accepted by our peers and many resort to drugs, alcohol,
and sex in order to obtain it. When acceptance and approval is not
forthcoming, many lose the desire to live.
A few years ago, a New Mexico high school
student took his fife because he felt himself unliked by his peers. He
was a good student and an excellent football player. When opposing
players would hit him with cheap shots during a game to intimidate him,
he took it as a sign of dislike. He felt that those in his own school
did not accept him. Feeling unaccepted by his fellow students, he ended
a precious life and a promising career.
Growing up too fast becomes a burden too
heavy to bear for many young people Parents don't allow their children
to be children anymore. A young girl on television remarked, "Parents
want us to act like adults, but treat us like children." Children are
left alone too much, and forced to make decisions they are incapable of
making. They dress like adults too early and date too soon. At an early
age, they are placed in organized sports where the pressure to excel is
tremendous. Boys can't get. together for a fun game of sandlot football
or baseball. Now everything is organized and regimented, more for the
fathers than the players. Often I have heard fathers berate their sons
publicly for missing a ball or fouling up a play. There is the pressure
of school work in trying to live up to the expectations of parents, the
competitiveness of teenage America, etc.
Early in fife a young person is under
pressure, and it builds as he tries to fit the mold of conformity and
reach the standards that others have set. Many young people live in the
fast lane. By the time they finish high school, they have experienced
cigarettes, booze, drugs, and sex, and are burned out. They have had it
all. Then they begin to ask themselves, "Is this all there is?" "Where
is that happiness I was promised?"
Broken homes and unconcerned parents cause
children to despair of living. Because of the high divorce rate, one out
of every six children now under 18 lives with a single parent. That
parent has to make a living, necessitating leaving the child alone for
lengthy periods of time. Among the working mothers of our nation,
however, 67 percent work outside the home because they choose to do so.
Women work outside the home for a number of reasons: social pressure,
ambition, boredom, trauma of staying home, having something exciting to
do, and to be "fulfilled."
Sixty-six percent of those polled felt that
"parents should feel free to live their own lives even if it means
spending less time with the children." Parents are shamelessly selfish,
seeking their own satisfaction, unwilling to give up what they want, and
doing it at the expense of their children for whom they are responsible.
From 2 to 6.5 million children come home
from school to empty houses. Some estimate the number at 10 million. If
this latter figure is correct, it would be a quarter of this nation's
school population. Thirty-two million children have mothers working
outside the home. The television has become the babysitter and the
telephone the lifeline to the parents. Children suffer from lack of
security. They are lonely, bored and scared. The Newark Fire Department
reports that one out of every six calls involves children alone at home.
Telephone hot lines are springing up all
over this country. "Phone Friend" in State College, PA averages 45 calls
per week between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. Children are wanting help with
homework, worried about mother being late, lonely, or wanting to know
what to do about a sick dog, etc. "Kid's Line" in Chicago averages 500
calls per month.
It is a shame and a disgrace the way
children are being abused and ignored. No wonder they see only death as
the light at the end of the tunnel.
The cure is in restoring the home as God
would have it. All of the aforementioned causes of suicides are related
to the home. These untimely deaths reflect the failure of parents to
prepare their children for life. The majority of young people are not
taught the true values of life nor the lessons to be learned from
failure. When failures come, there is no one to look to for support. The
parents are doing their own thing.
The family is the unit of society. It is the
strength and the stability of the nation, and the critical center of
social force. The home should be an atmosphere of love, interest, care,
concern, sacrifice, trust and respect. The parents should provide their
children with discipline, encouragement, praise, support and security.
"And, . ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of
the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). We are not to dishearten our children
without cause and purpose. "Bring(ing) them up" begins early and is
continuous action (Prov. 22:26). We "nurture" them by feeding
them the Word of God (1 Pet. 2:2). We establish them and make
straight paths for their feet by admonishing them (Deut. 6:4-7).
Our young people must be taught the meaning of life.
The Word and the home provide the cure for
teenage suicides. The home as God would have it would obliterate these
known causes and convince our young that life is worth living.
Guardian of Truth - June 20, 1985
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I
Just Got Out of the Habit
Hunger
Hard
Times
Psallo
Morality, the Government and Christians
Speech Made at the Funeral of Irven
Lee
- Caffin,
B.C. (1950), II Peter – Pulpit Commentary, H.D.M. Spence
and Joseph Exell, eds. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans).
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