PERSPECTIVE

SUICIDE WATCH

by JANN FLURY

February 25, 2000

SUICIDE WATCH Depression, violent crimes, even suicides have invaded our teenage population. A recent national survey in the United States showed that 20.5% of students had seriously contemplated suicide last year. And a local survey conducted in San Diego county, released on 18 Feb 00, pegged that number at 22.5%, with a minority group leading the pack where the number of teens considering suicide reached an alarming 31.1 % over the year.

In Canada the scenario is no better. Chronic and manic-depression have become a serious problem for many high school students, according to Dr. Stanley Kutcher, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, at Dalhousie University and one of the foremost experts in the field. The age at which this affliction sets in is getting lower and lower according to the good doctor. Why teenagers suffer from depression and why this malady should set in at a progressively younger age is still impossible for psychiatrists to ascertain with certainty, he says. Psychiatrists, psychologists and educators all look beyond their own disciplines for a cause (excuse). They blame everything from the pressures of urban life to the advertising media for many of the teenage emotional problems.

The media blizzard and social pressures may be contributing factors that lead to malcontentedness, but they certainly aren't the underlying cause of suicidal depression. There exists an axiom "An idle mind is the Devil's playground." Modern living has left teenagers with too much of everything, including free time. For them it has become a frustrating dilemma. Enjoy life to the fullest, our children are told by the establishment. It's all handed to them as a right, without strings attached. The feast appears free and endless without responsibility, obligation or effort a glutton's paradise. Unfortunately, once sated, a neurotic hunger develops. What else is on the menu? Is that all there is to it? Life can become an utter bore. The jaded youth has been robbed of any real meaning and purpose of life and living. Small wonder depression sets in. And educators and the shrinks don't know why our teens become depressed and consider suicide?

Depression results from futility, lack of purpose and direction and inactivity. If you fall through the ice on the frozen lake, you struggle hard to save yourself, but you don't suffer from depression. If you wake up and your house is on fire, you fear for your life, but depression does not come to mind. If you are peddling your bike up a steep hill, you look forward to getting over the top, but you don't become depressed. If you work hard to achieve a worthwhile goal, you may become temporarily frustrated, but you look forward to success and don't feel depressed. However, when you lounge around and have replayed all the video and computer games and stuffed yourself with pop and nachos, and can't decide what to do next, you may well begin to contemplate your lot in life. You may well begin to wonder what it's all about and what it is you're missing. And that can quickly lead to restlessness, loneliness, discontentment and self-pity-- a state of depression. The establishment is promising our children more than can be delivered. It sets false priorities that do not lead to healthy moral living. Educators preach confusing, contradictory dictums to our youth. They teach inaccurate and often blatantly false information to, supposedly, prepare students for life in the new millennium. They tell our youth "We're all part of the global village. We're all equal. To discriminate is a crime. Learn to work cooperatively as a group. Competition is wrong. All learning must be exciting, fun, and enjoyable. Learn to develop self-esteem. Every child is unique and has individual needs. Learn to learn. Prepare yourself for an unknown future and lifelong learning. Get on the internet to keep up with the daily changing technology and global competition. Tests, reading and writing aren't important anymore. Learn to enjoy life to the fullest; it's your right. Discover your sexuality and the lifestyle that suits you best. There are many kinds of families. You have rights. Every child's rights are protected through the a United Nations Charter. Our government must spend more money on education resources to prepare you for life in the new millennium."

Educators have created in the minds of our youth a moral wasteland, as barren and featureless as the polar wilderness of Antarctica. There is no direction. There is no purpose. There is no right or wrong. There is no truth. There is no love. There is no God. There is only self-aggrandizement, cultivated through the false teaching of artificial self-esteem. There is only the pursuit of pleasure and material acquisition. They tell the children that their salvation is lifelong learning to make them masters of all they survey (which of course is nothing, because life has been made into a featureless homogenized mess of moral decay through teachings of nonjudgmental, politically-correct rubbish).

Our youths become depressed because they see no future, no goal, no end, no purpose. All they see is futility and endless learning without meaning. Modern educators have robbed them of all natural feelings and ambitions. Instead they engineer the young minds to become part of a faceless, egalitarian society-- an artificial creation of the new global socialistic dogma that was never meant to be.

Give our teenagers lots of work. Give them competition. Let them express their feelings of outrage against contemptible behaviour. Teach them right from wrong. Give them a goal in life to shoot for. Introduce them to morality. And above all, GIVE THEM RESPONSIBILITIES. Our youth will gladly accept the challenge. Teenagers, by nature, want to assume a responsible role in society and become independent as part of a healthy growing up process.

We don't need a nation of "lifelong learners" tied to the apron strings of manipulative "educators." We need a nation of self-reliant optimists, eager to go forth and prove their worth. JANN FLURY Phone 1-905-571-4811 Fax 1-905-571-4881

-- Lucy (lifeisgoodhere@webtv.net), February 27, 2000

Answers

Thank you for this posting, Lucy. Adolescents lack the mechanisms to resolve information conflict. The group programmed to "truth", the backbone of our society, reacts to current conditions by : Suicide, 10 on a scale of 1-10; illogical violence (shooters, bombers, etc-includes self directed violence) 9; manipulation of the system or relearning (dealers, pimps, etc:criminal and profitable behaviors)8; and down the list. IT gave our adolesents a powerful, directed, ethical (by their lights) tool. Resolution and remediation, as perceived by them, can be achieved without "harm" to the innocent masses. This is a serious situation and not enough attention is being given to it. Well, as an oldster from the sixties, I can say we brought it on ourselves. Funny how quickly we forget the passion of youth in our maturity. Dangerous, too. Survival is a categorical imperative for all species, and suicide is not a viable resolution tool in a survival paradigm.

-- mike in houston (mmorris67@hotmail.com), February 27, 2000.

IMHO, we missed the opportunity to turn this around when the lights stayed on and the TV's kept on a-going. Now we'll go all the way down into the sewer, and the barbarian hoards that will overrun us will come from within and be of our own creating.

-- JIT (justintime@rightnow.net), February 27, 2000.

Hoards/Hordes.

A beautiful Y2K Doomer Freudian slip. Shows where my mind is.

-- JIT (justintime@rightnow.net), February 27, 2000.

That is a saddening set of figures, but without comparing it to other years, unfortunately it doesn't mean very much. Is the figure for those who had 'seriously contemplated suicide' higher or lower than in previous years ? Is it going up or is it going down ? We are not told.

Further, the researcher quoted tells us what 'Psychiatrists, psychologists and educators' see as the cause of this depression. Didn't they think to ask the kids ? Apparently not. Nowhere in the article is that mentioned, but the author is quick to provide what she sees as a solution to the problem and to suggest foisting it upon them.

I find this an astonishing article, but probably not for the reasons it was intended.

-- a programmer (a@programmer.com), February 27, 2000.

a programmer, you have a good point. Why don't adults prove that they can behave well, first, by the way.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 27, 2000.

My 30 year old single daughter would be a good case study of the system not working. She was taking over the counter antidepressants in high school, her mother died when she was 18, she has been in the phsyciatric center several times for depression, she has an extremely low earnings limit or she would lose her social security benefits which are essential to cover the cost when she goes into the phsyc center, etc. When she is admitted, they will not let her out untill she has been there for weeks or months even when she wants to get out, (fear that she will commit suicide) constant changing of conselors, heavy medications (to keep her stable). It has been a nightmare for 13 years. She totaled 2 cars in 2 years, can't earn more than $1200 year or would lose social security benefits (approx 550 per month). There are huge variations in programs depending on the condition, program and agency. For example, retarded people have no earnings limit, their benifit level is much higher and they do not have any medical bills or prescriptions to pay as compared to people with mental problems. The incompetence of the system overwhelms these victims. Her depression was attributed to the death of her mother. It is more than that. I do not see how she can ever have a normal life and she feels the same way. The systems main focus is to keep her alive and any sign of instability results in her being readmitted to the phsyciatric unit and more huge medical bills. What happens when she exceeds the cap under social security? The will not dismiss her after 2 days after the crisis has passed. Then they have patient "confidentiality" and will tell the parent ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the condition of the patient even whether or not she was dismissed from the facility. It is really easy to be a helpful parent under these conditions. The system really sucks and it is IMPOSSIBLE for persons in this situation to have a normal life. The basic diagnosis was "depression". I personally think the drugs they gave her made it worse so that she was not able to recover from the first episode. This fiasco has provided well over $200,000 of income to the mental health establishment in this area with zero success except that she is still alive despite and not because of their efforts. I am talking about Florida law and treatment systems however I suspect similar problems in other jurisdictions. The Baker Law is a good starting point in Florida about the root causes of the problems. The politically correct mental health treatment system is so bureaucratic that it is impossible for it to serve the persons that it is designed to help. Any comments from mental health workers who have seen some success stories in this area or who can verify these problems? Do parents have any rights in this area?

-- Larry (Disgusted@sorry.sys), February 27, 2000.

No no no no no.....

Why is society responsible for parenting our children??!!

This is our job as parents, to instill morals and values and teach right from wrong. Teach them responsibility and Guide them to God, to give them hope to hang on when things get tough (and they will). These things should begin at home at a very early age. Don't take the easy way out. It's supposed to be difficult and trying, and exhausting.

Practice what you preach.

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), February 28, 2000.

Yes the same thing is happening over here, manifested by:

teenage joyriders who drive extremely recklessly without compunction, one recently drove straight into a cottage in my street practically ending up in the front room, others set fire to vehicles in the countryside

Law officers say that youths no longer have any respect for the police (well there use to be some!)

There is a generation of sullen shaven-headed ("who are you looking at") deadbeats emerging

drug abuse is at an all time high (now ignored by the police under orders from the socialist government)

etc etc

-- richard dale (richard.dale@unum.co.uk), February 28, 2000.

Lucy, I'm not sure this article quite diagnoses the problem adequately, but it makes some good points.

>> We don't need a nation of "lifelong learners" tied to the apron strings of manipulative "educators." We need a nation of self-reliant optimists, eager to go forth and prove their worth. <<

Hmmm. The idea of "lifelong learning" doesn't require anyone to be tied to the apron strings of educators. I think if you asked 100 teachers what they thought it meant, at least 95 would tell you it meant you must continue to read, think and grow yourself even after you *leave* school. I know I do. No apron strings involved.

As for giving teenagers responsibilities, what a fantastic idea! As a matter of fact, quite a lot of young people *are* taking on plenty of responsibilities. Just think of the young people you know. Chances are they are cramming their lives with school, a job and several outside activities. But, a life with responsibility is not an automatic path to a life with meaning.

As the article rightly points out, you can't have meaning without value. Real values cannot simply be handed to our youth without their having to work for them, like we give them clothes or food. Sunday school lessons are a start, but life has to fill in the real lessons. Thus was it ever.

To my mind, the worst factor for causing depression among youth is that so many lines of endeavor open to them - so many of the types of work that adults do - appear to them to be empty and meaningless apart from the mere paycheck they provide. And they are dead right. The most meaningful jobs are often the worst treated and most maligned - like teaching or child care. Or hauling garbage. Highly paid prestige work occurs in mega-corporations, wearing a tie and pushing paper. If you make more than $50,000 a year, chances are your life looks depressingly like a Dilbert cartoon.

This fact depressed the hell out of me when I was younger. I have struggled with it ever since. But damn if I'm going to give up! I keep finding ways to defeat or escape the perversions in the system and I spend as much of my time as possible as meaningfully as possible. It is uphill work.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), February 28, 2000.

Brian

I agree somewhat with your points toward this article. (Reason why I listed it as good article and not excellent)

What I liked about her article was more her overall view of children being brought up in this new age, politically correct, immoral society. Through this twaddle being ingrained in them without any morals or direction is definately a dangerous road they are being led down. IMHO.

-- Lucy (lifeisgoodhere@webtv.net), February 28, 2000.

I agree that people need meaning in their lives or it becomes boring, very often leading to depression. However, I do not agree with the author's point that political correctness is a cause of this problem. I also don't agree that "life-long learning" is a problem. Teenage suicide and depression is a very complex issue that cannot be caused by just one factor. My personal opinion, is that our national focus on materialism and looking perfect is a big part of it. I think if adolescents were really interested in becoming "lifelong learners" there would be less depression and sucide. To me, our society belittles intellectual learning and doesn't place enough value upon it. I do agree with the author's point that teenagers need more responisbilty and tasks to achieve. That is the only way to have true "self-esteem".

-- gina anderson (ginafona@yahoo.com), October 30, 2004.