Suicide Among College Students example essay topic

SUICIDE AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS Suicide has become a critical, national problem and the extent of this is mind-boggling. Suicides have been proven to be one of the leading causes of death among college students. According to Web ters dictionary "suicide is the act killing oneself on purpose". It derived from the Latin sui, meaning "self", and, which means "to kill". But this is just a definition, because an actual suicide holds different meanings to people such as tragic, shocking, a relief, a cry for help, a shame, heroic, the right choice, punishment, revenge, protest, anger, a mistake, desperate, hurtful and many more. But why do people, like college students who have their entire future ahead of them, simply give up hope and turn their heads away from life and commit suicide.

There are several causes of suicide, recent incidents of suicide on college campuses, warning signs from a suicidal. I blame the Constitution and the United States law for not taking any hard initiative on the subject of suicide. I also impose the choice of the media, which is reflecting and portraying suicide towards a wrong direction. However most important questions remain: can the growing epidemic of suicide be solved, what are communities doing about it and what can they do to help? The first and outmost question that comes in my mind is why do college students commit suicide? Why would the quiet, shy chemistry major student sitting next to you in the library jump from his 14th floor dorm?

Why would a talented athlete on the basketball team use a gun to kill herself? The causes for committing suicide can range from depression, family and relationship problems, expectations, pressure to succeed and academic failure, financial stable ness, not reaching the goal that is desired and many more. According to the National Association for Suicide Prevention everyone has different reasons for being depressed and the extent of that depression will also vary from person to person. Some common causes of depression that have been found to lead to college suicide are not feeling loved or understood, the feeling of rejection, trouble with friends and family, or the feeling of being "no good", and not reaching the academic standards (42).

Kay Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University said in the University article that feeling of loss as in the death of a loved one, divorce, or the breakup up with a boyfriend / girlfriend has also been found to link depression and suicide. Another theory that Jamison linked to suicide is the feeling of pressure to succeed. Suicide rates are higher in colleges and universities where there is a greater population, which causes an increase in competition for jobs, grades, getting ones desired major and in school sports. The pressure to achieve academically can be intense when lot of money on education is on the line, when the pressure is on of performing well enough for acceptance in certain degree programs, law school or medical school because during college years a person's potential career is at risk. Also, in today's society, the family can be quite different from the stereotypical family of the 1950's where the father went to work and the mom stayed at home. Today, with single parent families and families where both parents may be working full time the child is the one who is getting left out.

The thought of suicide just doesn't come when a person goes to college but it develops throughout the years and then the act itself of suicide. I think great stress is put upon youth today starting in early childhood that contribute to strain and depression in latter years. Most enter daycare at an early age and continue into preschool. When intermediate school starts, they are in the early-morning and after-school programs. Children left to their own devices at an early age develop sensations of loneliness. Many go home to an empty house with no one to talk to about their day at school.

Once the parents arrive home, and probably late from work it may be time for some game practice or even bedtime. Or many times parents are too tired to spend time with their children also leaving the child feeling neglected. And on top of that they are pressured and pushed to do their academic best. When it is time to go away for college the youngsters have to build a new life at their school, no connection with their parents and without an idea about their uncertain future. I met youngsters at Long Island University and heard cases of other college students who came from different states to get education, they attend classes, work day and night without any help, and in addition lack good relationship with their parents. One of the reasons they told me is that they never felt a connection with their parents even when they were in high school; their parents never listened to their side of the story; and their parents were never around when they needed them.

One of the students said", I wish my parents weren't so busy in their own matters so they would have paid attention to me". The recent cases that occurred at New York University are shocking enough and further evidence of college students committing suicide. According to Chicago Tribune, three recent incidents that took place in past 13 months at New York University were of Diana Chien, who was 19, had lived in New York for only a month. She transferred here to be close to her boyfriend. John Skol nik, who was 20, a junior from Evanston, Ill., who had just returned from a summer study trip to Cuba. And Michelle Gluck man, 19, who was at a party when she suddenly yelled, 'I just can't take it anymore,' and headed toward a kitchen window.

These incidents have left the students and the staff, faculty very confused and disturbed. And now every entering freshmen is required to fill out a questionnaire about their health, mental illness, and other health related information which is required from the school so they can be aware of individuals. So, is this enough to stop the pressure and feeling of loneliness among the college students? Well, not quite. New York University and other institutions should decrease the amount of pressure on the students (4).

However by not handing them high grades and making their course work easy but rather by encouraging them and by suggesting to them that their money and hard work will not go to waste but rather that students will succeed and will achieve what they want. This way at least the students will gain confidence in them and hope for tomorrow. Also, colleges and universities must be familiar with problems concerning students and make them visit the school psychologist mandatory at least once a semester to let their feelings and problems out of their system. Without the filled questionnaire and forms signs of suicide must be recognized among the peers of college students. There are many warning signs of suicide.

A person contemplating suicide will show numerous clues before attempting suicide. According to Richard Selden, a, warning signs might include withdrawal from the family, changes in eating and sleeping habits, as well as loss of interest in schoolwork or favorite activities, such as participation in athletics. Fatigue loss of energy, and feelings of worthlessness. Suicidal people often talk of death and make actual threats to kill themselves and end their life. Many college students will drop verbal clues such as: "I might as well be dead", or "you " ll be sorry when I'm gone" (37). According to the National Institute of Mental Health: Suicidal might even prepare for death for instance, give away their prized possessions.

In some cases, the most ominous sign of suicidal intent is the sudden onset of apparent peace of mind after a long period of troubling behavior. Such a mood change may indicate the person has finally resolved to commit suicide and thus has achieved a kind of tranquility. I agree that there might be signs but in most cases there are none because most of the time students don't communicate with each other that much and are too busy in their own curriculum so no one really get to understand the inner feelings of disappointment and pain. But does our Constitution or law have any say in suicide? Suicide has become a big part of American society, year after year more people are taking their own lives for many different reasons. The specific laws regarding suicide differ by state, but according to the United States law people who attempt or commit suicide are not punished under the laws in the United States.

For example: as stated in the 1985 Duquesne Law Review, in New Jersey, the state that with the lowest suicide rate, the state legislature in 1972 classified suicide as a disorderly offense and enacted that "1. Any person who attempts to commit suicide shall not be guilty of a criminal offense, and such attempt shall not be an indictable offense" (5) In the U.S. suicide has never been treated as a crime nor punished by property forfeiture or ignominious burial. But six states still consider attempted suicide a crime: North and South Dakota, Washington, New Jersey, Nevada, and Oklahoma. Basically, the law states that if one is caught attempting suicide and does not succeed then they go to jail and probably then to the hospital to get care for.

If they do succeed then they are saved. By this it is clear that the United States law does not have any law reinforcement or any kind of help that they could contribute in decreasing the number of college students that commit suicide. Where there are people who are unhappy with their lives there will be suicide, especially college students who are prone to committing suicide due to problems and failure. Media has the major influence in reflecting college students towards suicide. However, the media may not be a direct cause of suicide, but it definitely influences troubled individuals.

There are already so many problems surrounding college students but because so much of seeing and hearing things can influence them even more to believe and accept suicide as a opting out solution. Documentaries should be informative and educating but even they highlight suicide and somehow glamorize it and make suicide look appealing. Once I saw the documentary on Japan and their meaning of suicide. Japan does not have an anti-suicide tradition to its culture as do Western nations. According to Steven Stack, "Many Japanese define suicide as "good". For example, in one survey 28% of the college students surveyed viewed suicide as good.

Furthermore, only 9% of university students though suicide was a social problem (132). I think this idea comes from the traditional Japanese society, in certain situations suicide was seen as the appropriate moral course of action for a man who otherwise faced the loss of his honor. Japanese see death as a union where nature is expressed in two of the most common means of suicide: suicide by drowning and jumping from high places. Drowning for example symbolizes being born in the purity of nature. By this I could say that in Japan suicide is considered sacrifice rather than an act of killing oneself.

This could be the one of the reasons that somehow the Japanese culture of suicide gripped the American students through the media and not by persuading them but just by informing them about suicide and its significance in Japanese culture. According to the writer of One in Thirteen, Jessica Portner says that "Television, according to one theory, leads children to expect quick answers and undermines their ability to tolerate frustration. Programs present serious problems and solve them in half an hour. Life just does not work that way" (40). On television everything good or bad is solved in few hours no matter how complicated or easy the problem is. But in reality, it takes years to get to the core of the problem and sometimes the problems are beyond our hands when it comes to solving them.

Sometimes television shows somehow connect to our lives or they teach us moral lessons but it is important to remember that most of them are made up stories in which actors are portraying as fictional characters. Those characters don't have a slightest idea what we as an individual go through in our life so how can they possibly have any answers to our specific, unique problems on television shows. There are many copycat incidents after a youngster view movies or hears a news broadcast about suicide. There are some people who realized the problem about how suicide is portrayed by the media and made their stand.

Dan Waters wrote the script for the movie Heathers, an offbeat comedy about youth suicide and murder. Charlotte Ross, co-chairman of the National Committee for Youth Suicide and Prevention, has also raised the issue of movies influencing college student suicide and said that, "Even given the best intentions, it is easy to see how such attractive and appealing actors might glamorize the tragedy of suicide. A troubled child who is highly suggestible may see suicide as the solution" (19). But, how come no one is doing something in order to prevent the media from influencing youth as a solution to their problems? Many of the programs and movies shown to try and stop suicide but they often tend to backfire. There may be no absolute way of completely vanishing suicide but the students who are learning and might experiment should be able to turn to television for healthy and beneficial entertainment and not harmful.

Suicide is not mentioned just on television and movies but also in stories and novels. Franz Kafka in Metamorphosis shows the audience the character of Gregor Samsa. His anxieties, inner terrors, and turmoil of human life are all contributing to his suicide. After Gregor's metamorphosis into a huge monstrous vermin, when he could no longer be able to do any work, his family begins to treat him as the vermin he has become. They no longer consider him as a human being, or a member of their family. Gregor seemed to be waiting for his family to take care of him and help him when he is in usual state of an insect but as time went on Gregor started to give up hope for his family ever helping or even loving him.

So, he decided to end his life. According to Kafka, "Gregor thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's". And Gregor Samsa commits suicide. He felt he was no longer needed, as a salesman, a son and brother, or a member of society; he was lonely and there was no better way so he opted to from his own life.

College communities are developing counseling centers and suicide help phone line and on campus psychologists. But just to be more cautious, all the students in college should know more about the growing and serious epidemic of suicide. Students should put up flyers informing them on the subject of suicide and like any other societies they should have fundraisers to raise money in creating suicide help line and psychiatric offices for college students off campus. Be aware of their environment and inform any sign of suicide among their peers so that they can immediately get help before it gets too late.

It depends on individual, some college students manage to survive and even flourish under the most difficult circumstances, while others flounder under the same conditions.

Bibliography

Steven, Swanson. "Tribune National Correspondent". Chicago Tribune Oct. 2004: 8.
Colt, George Howe. The Enigma of Suicide. New York: Touchstone / Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Portner, Jessica. One in Thirteen. Maine: Robins Lane Press, 2001.
Franz, Kafka. "The Metamorphosis". The Idea of the Human. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. Minerva Press, 1992.