Teen Suicide

CHAPTER 2 Causes of Suicide among Teenagers According to the book “Filipino Children under Stress” written by author Maria Lourdes Arellano-Carandang, teenage suicides are often caused by mental problems, substance abuse, family history of suicide, and other stressors such as bullying and financial dilemma. As Dr. Philip Chua from a blog site of Noemi Lardizabal-Dado would say: “People usually attempt suicide to block unbearable emotional pain, which is caused by a wide variety of problems. It is often a cry for help. A person attempting suicide is often so distressed that they are unable to see that they have other options.” Delving in deeper, I would like to elaborate more on these various causes: * SUBSTANCE ABUSE Did you know that the frequency of suicide attempts among substance abusers is five times greater than the frequency among people who do not abuse substances? This is particularly true for alcoholics, because major depression is 50 percent more common among alcoholics than non-alcoholics. Ironically, many people drink alcohol or use drugs such as cocaine to reduce feelings of depression not knowing that these actually lead to greater anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide. In February 7, 2004, a 17-year old young woman named Traci Johnson committed suicide after allegedly taking an antidepressant called Cymbalta for a trial made by a pharmaceutical giant “Eli Lilly & Co.” On an article made by Jeanne Lenzer and Nicholas Pyke for the Independent-UK, it said that:
“For the drugs giant, her death on 7th February last year was an "isolated tragedy" that did not prevent it from pressing ahead with the Cymbalta trials. It is now on sale in the US and - under another name - in Europe and the UK. But for the scientific community it was another warning bell about a class of medicines already under scrutiny for

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