Suicide rates in teenagers have skyrocketed, because of this there are now sites, books and the like dedicated to suicidal teens. In the books Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher and The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins, all discuss teenage suicide in different ways: Asher looks at it from Clay listening to the girl he loved, Hannah, who committed suicide; furthermore, Robbins looks at teenage suicide from the factual point. There are three views that should be considered when thinking about even the subject of suicide, the books speak of two but for one it is needed for personal moments. However, these may be hard to share or to explain without giving names. The first view to look at is that of the loved ones of the suicidal victim.

The suicidal say that the world is better off without them even if that is not the truth of the matter. The truth of the matter is that when someone commits suicide it hurts everyone than just the one who commits the act. Clay Jenson, the protagonist, is a boy who receives a box of tapes from the girl he loved; however, the girl then committed suicide leaving “I [Clay] begin to cry… I just heard the last words I’ll ever hear from Hannah Baker… anytime someone says I’m sorry, I’m going to think of her” (Asher, pg 280). This quote explains how Clay felt about Hannah’s death, how “something’s clearly gone wrong in your [Clay’s] life” (Asher, pg 192) and because of the message and the pain of his love was killing him. However, teenage suicide is not just about the effects but also the facts.

In 2001, the 3rd leading cause of death for teenagers was suicide according to http://www.familyfirstaid.org/suicide.html. That means only two things attributed to the death of adolescence. Robbins finds from Choe Sang-hun that “more than eight out of every hundred thousand students between the ages of fifteen and nineteen committed suicide in 2003” (Robbins, 35). It is amazing that those numbers when you consider how many people are in the country of China while in the US, it is 8.2 out of 100,000 between the same ages (2008; http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml). Then when taking into account that one in six teenagers have thought of suicide (Youth Risk Surveillance Survey of 2005), is it any surprise that so much happens? Yet, what about the one committing the act… do they not deserve to be mentioned in a light that tries to show them for what they are?

I have heard cutting and suicide as a release and the ultimate act of cowardice; likewise, I have been told of friends who have cut since they were young and thought of it as a means to escape the pressure. My friend, let’s call her Jane, cuts herself regularly. Her problems are numerous and range from the petty things to mother issues. Or my other female friend, Miyono, who did it all last year because of the stress she had as a sophomore and her father. I, myself, have been placed in the high-risk groups of: bisexual, overachiever, has undergone a life-changing event, has moved, and is a victim of bullying (the Japanese have a phrase of how the nail that sticks out the most is the one that is hit the hardest). This does not mean that I am going to go out and swallow a bottle of pills; however, it means that I am more likely to than James is, another friend but this one has dealt with suicidal people. It has never been my attention to shed negative light nor open myself up for a psychiatrist, when writing about my experiences with suicidal teenagers.

Rates have skyrocketed from a small percentage to the 3rd biggest cause for teenagers. It means that there is a crisis, but one that cannot be solved with a bailout or any other kind of simple solution. In fact, it must be done by educating teens how to handle stress, by lowering the pressure, and by helping certain teens who listen to the problems. Those teenagers are the one at the most risk because who knows when the pressure will be to great on them and send them off with a razor blade to end their misery of being the suicidal people’s rock.