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It’s quite fitting to say that teenagers around the world have been dropping like flies due to mental disorders. Despite the numbers are blaring in our faces, adults are still overlooking the teens affected by the illnesses because they somehow delude themselves into thinking it’s not that serious due to the fact that they’re underage. In stark contrast, recent study shows that even preschoolers are susceptible to depression. Because the fact that mental disorders can inherited, it makes the illnesses even harder to control. The worst case scenario, mental illnesses results in death. Now there are many different roads that can get the patients to that breaking point.
Suicide is one major possible endpoint for people with mental disorders like depression, eating disorders, and anxiety. Landing a spot on the list of top causes of death, suicide takes the 10th place. An United Nations report, every 40 seconds, someone in the world commits suicide. Suicide rates have been rising over the last decade, especially in ages 15-24.
1 (800) 273-8255
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Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Coping mechanism aren’t always positive and there are many other forms of self harm. People deliberately turn to cutting, burning, and starving themselves whenever they feel like they’re losing it. The idea of self harming as a way of coping with a stressful situation may seem contradicting because it appears that all that’s doing is making the situation worst. Especially in a case of a panic attack, people feel like the whole world is closing in on them and they can’t do anything besides letting their sickness drag them into a downward spiral. As a way of putting themselves back in control, they turn to self harm because in that moment the self-induced injury is the only pain that they can control. Self harm is a coping mechanism because it anchors the person back to reality and even if it’s for a second, it makes them feel like their situation is manageable.
Although self-inflicted wounds seem less fatal than suicide, it’s the furthest thing away from being beneficial. Many people has a habit of seeing self harm as an act of attention seeking. We as a community need to acknowledge that kids don’t cut themselves for no reason and more than often, the reason is something that can be changed. At the end of the day, self harm is just another step closer to death and it shouldn’t be a subject to be looked at lightly.
Controlling the Pain
By Yonglin Chen