A disturbing trend are the high rates of suicides and suicidal attempts among our adolescent population. Adolescence usually is a very special stage in life that presents different sort of challenges and difficulties, also particular kind of emotions and behaviours many times difficult to precise from the outside, because as exterior observers sometimes those inner emotional / affective movements that are happening in front of us but we cannot exactly perceive their real meaning and give them proper interpretation, neither parents and teachers, even if those inner issues are causing interior troubles to the adolescent himself.
We may see also many characteristics proper of the adolescent stage of biological and emotional development, including as well the inner and outer turmoil that is inherent to this life stage, but that not necessarily have to lead to suicidal fantasies, ideation and attempts, sadly so often successful. Is the deep importance of thinking why that negative development happens to many kids to the point of being the second cause of dead in Canadian adolescents. Psychiatrist H.S. Sullivan stated a while ago in his “Clinical
Studies in Psychiatry” (Sullivan 1956, Norton & Co. New York), how no-body gets cured for good of adolescence. A portion of that remains in almost all of us, as some inner adolescent spots come from our past time experiences. That happens in spite of us, also mature developed adults, and those stances happen to be inserted in our unconscious self. It is deeply interesting to think that these possible situations happen even if we are “complete” emotionally mature persons in our awareness and we believe we are.
Life is our really interesting common human experience, on which happiness and pain go together or in senoidal lines as the Ying and Yang on the Taoist philosophy. But is not clear if we do really know what adolescence is about on present time. Is important, however, as we often observe how the “adolescent- stress” seems to be present as a continuum in this modern way of living, and seems to be so difficult to solve or overcome by the adolescent him/herself, that often leads to self-destructive behaviours.
Our modern society is not well prepared for dealing with the reactions
of kids not willing to live or not able to face their living difficulties, or some times for them impossible to understand why to live is really meaningful.
Adolescent suicide is actually a more spread problem in wealthy countries, and clearly not that frequent in developing and poor counties. Africa is a poor continent but their adolescents’ are not that suicidal as it happens in North-America. We do know adolescent suicide is deeply related to the interpersonal and social environment, and the influence of personal and cultural surroundings. The basic intra-personal features begin to be shaped since the starting moment of individual life. But is also deeply related
to influences coming from their families, school and socio-cultural structures.
Factors of social intolerance like homosexuality and bullying are strong producers of high amounts of adolescent distress.
Family background may sometimes allow seeing some links to the traditional
psychopathology but this is not a necessary factor because these phenomenon needs to be addressed on a boarder public health perspective and not only into the window of traditional classifications as these are basically personal but socio-cultural events.
Many times that socio-cultural influences may produce really negative responses in adolescents. Here are included the most primary
infantile experiences even if they are hidden, thus not presents in people’s conscious mind. Also when there is the presence of an unfortunate factor for example some kind of mental disorder or dysfunction, the rates of suicide becomes higher than in normal teens (Isaac and Armat, 1990).
We find different notes on literature related to the experience of feeling so bad about oneself, and everything leading to not finding any kind of solution, whichever could be the sort of problem. For example, “A vague spooky restlessness had gained gradual momentum until my nights were without sleep and my days were pervaded by a gray drizzle of unrelenting horror. This horror is virtually indescribable since it bears no relation to normal experience” wrote William Styron.
Adolescents often are struggling with difficult situations either objective or subjective, or both of them. Depending on their developmental life experience, they may or may not be prepared for coping with such kind of difficult personal situations. An appropriate personality development may prepare kids for coping and having the adequate ego-structure when life produce those high problematic and demands.
But an improper, non-well balanced developmental life experience, produce a not sufficient and adequate ego structure. That gets to weak defense-mechanisms, not enough developed and adequate to what their reality needs to cope with, and allows to not having the emotional tools for dealing and solving those strong reality demands that “to live “can bring into kids lives.
Their young self ,in its maturation process is not jet working at the necessary level for coping with the tensions which can become the starting point for thinking about their own personal destruction, and in such way is inundated by anguish, diffuse-anxiety, strong fears and perhaps even depression, overwhelmed for having in mind confusing feelings and ideas. This way their accent becomes stronger not only on personal dead, as this process is not just about kids’ personal decease. It is a strong response about: “there will be not problems any more, not pain anymore and suffering not any-more…” and that way personal dead become only possible “solution”. To die is not the problem because that is instead the open door to the “solution”. And when the young individual mind gets its complete focus on “the solution is to die” the adolescent as a whole becomes self-centered on reaching that for him/her unique goal. That way the possible or expected fears about dying become absolutely covered by the total and final ending of their suffering. That blinds the mind directed in that sole way of action.
When we seesuicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adolescents, let us also think this kids live immerse in their social context and into many interpersonal influences. What is really happening into general society, families and school dynamics for this trend to continue going on, for allowing themselves to have at the same time suicidal kids and implacable bullying?
Can we think, as deeply affected families and society, which are the deep roots about this phenomenon? I believe that we do not completely understand well the reasons, and do not know how to stop the actions. We are not having here just individual cases: we have broad personal, families and socio-cultural factors working insidiously and sometimes unconsciously, out of our awareness. We all are the product of the culture and society we live-into.
I will continue exporing this topic in future posts. Stay tunned and send me your comments.