When excessive teenage anxiety, sadness and feelings of lack of hope and self-worth are left untreated, teenagers may start to consider suicide as an option to end their feelings of depression. If teenagers are experiencing these thoughts and feelings, help should be sought immediately. Flippant remarks, such as “I feel like ending it all” or when giving away things usually considered precious to them, should be taken seriously as the teen may be feeling suicidal.
What is suicide?
In a nutshell, suicide is the taking on one’s own life or ending one’s own life. Usually as a result of trauma or self-destructive thoughts and feelings combined with excessive stress, an individual makes the choice to either plan or commit suicide as an act. For some, it is a call for help, but for others their goal is death. Teenagers may consider suicide for a number of reasons related to teenage anxiety, mental health and depression. See our section on Anxiety Causes and Types.
What is assisted suicide?
Assisted suicide is when one person helps another person commit suicide. The term is usually used in a medical sense when someone helps a terminally ill person receive relief through death rather than suffering in life. Sometimes teenagers make pacts to die and one teenager will assist another before taking their own life. This too is a form of assisted suicide.
Difference between self-harm and gesture suicidal acts
As a cry for help or attention, some teenagers when highly anxious or emotionally disturbed, opt to harm themselves by cutting or even excessive addictive behaviours. Usually these teens do not want to commit suicide as an act of permanent death. They are looking for help either consciously or unconsciously. Gesture suicide acts are where the person plans to die or commits a suicidal act that will not result in permanent death because they really do not want to die but want help. Such acts may lead to accidental suicide.
Teenage anxiety and suicide-homicide
Some teenagers express extreme anxiety through destruction of property and aggressive acts against others. Their feelings of fear and worthlessness may turn to anger where they experience impulses to want to harm or even murder others. They may feel that their own life is worth nothing, therefore another person’s life isn’t worth anything either. Teens sometimes may want to punish others as a result of their own negative feelings and self-talk. Examples of such behaviour include cult suicide, school massacres and the killing of family members.
Increasing anxiety should not be left untreated
When anxiety becomes abnormal in the development of a teenager, their behaviours and responses show the stress that they are experiencing. Early identification and treatment will help to prevent such anxiety from becoming out of hand, impacting their mental and physical health, and also the possible health and safety of others. Seeing a healthcare professional for treatment options is advisable.
