Suicide Research Paper :: essays research papers

Suicide, it's not pretty. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's the 'Process' of ending ones life. Suicide is sometime seen as understandable or even honorable in certain circumstances. Such as in protests (hunger strike), as part of battle or resistance (suicide pilots(WWII), suicide bombers) or as a way of preserving the honor of a 'dishonored' person (killing yourself to save someone else). Nearly one million people world wide commit suicide each year, with anywhere from 10 to 20 million suicide attempts annually. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in males and the 16th leading cause of death in females. It is the third leading cause of death for people 10 to 24 year of age. Trends in rates of suicides for teens 15 to 19 years old show that from 1950 to 1990 the frequency of suicides went up by 300%. From 1990 to 2003, that rate went down 35%. Self-mutilation is one of the most common methods of committing suicide. Self-mutilation means to deliberately hurt yourself without meaning to kill someone else. Examples of self-mutilation are: cutting any part of the body (usually the wrists), self- burning, head-banging, pinching, and scratching. The effects of suicide on friends and family are often devastating. Individuals who lose a loved one from suicide are more at risk for becoming pre-occupied with the reason for it. Wanting to deny or hide the cause of death, wondering if they could have prevented it, feeling blamed for the problems that preceded the suicide, feeling rejected by their loved one, and stigmatized by others really makes friends and family feel like they?re not wanted. Survivors of suicide may feel a great range of conflicting emotions about the deceased, feeling everything from intense sadness about the loss, and helpless to prevent it. Every suicide has it?s reasons, but a lot of them aren?t so legitimate. An example of a possible trigger for suicide is a real or imagined loss, like the breakup of a romantic relationship, moving, loss of a friend, loss of freedom, or loss of other privileges. Older people are more likely to kill themselves using a firearm compared to younger people. Some people commit suicide by threatening police officers, sometimes even with an unloaded gun or a fake weapon. That is commonly referred to as ?Suicide by cop.? Although firearms are the most common way people complete suicide, trying to