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Choose Life - The Facts

The number of teen suicides is growing in the US which is something to be alarmed about. These are the numbers that WE ALL must deal with and overcome. Click HERE to download a FREE PDF [coming soon] listing for causes risk factors and warning signs. Click HERE for warning signs.

• While exceedingly rare, there are actually suicide statistics for children as young as 5. Stunning - but explainable!
• Depending on your specific location, suicides are the second or third most common cause of death among teens. Typically among teens, the first cause is accidents, second is homicides and third are suicides.
• Suicide is the 10th most common cause of death among 5 to 24 year olds and the 11th most common cause of death among all Americans. It is the 8th leading cause of death among all males.
• Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among college students.
• Teens don't typically use the term "bullying," which seems to them to indicate elementary school. In their own teen lives, they use the word "drama" which implies a lack of responsibility.
• Teenage girls are at risk since they are three times as likely as boys to attempt suicide. Females are the large majority of suicide attempts that end up in an emergency room.
• Bullies have problems of their own. They are 4 times more likely to commit other crimes. By age 24, 60% will commit a crime that can or will create an arrest record.

• 160,000 US children stay home from school each day to avoid bullying at school.
• In the 40 years between 1952 and 1992, suicides increased by 78% among adults in the US. But among teenagers in the same period, the increase was 600%.
• 58% of all suicides in the US are by fire arms.
• 73% of all suicide deaths are white males. But the highest rate of suicide deaths in North America are found among Native Americans. In fact, indigenous populations top the charts for in-country suicides in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
• Bullying is on the rise. Some of our children are literally taunting other children to death. And anyone who contributes to a child's death is a child killer.
• Females are three times as likely than males to attempt suicide by use of poisons or pills. But they are just as likely as males to jump off bridges and as likely to suicide by hanging, strangulation or suffocation. Boys often choose more violent means.
• Calif has the most total suicides: 3,206/year. That is 3x as many as either NY, IL, MI or NC, and 2x as many as 4th ranked Pennsylvania.

• Teenage boys are at risk since they account for 80% of all teen suicide deaths and are four times as likely as teen girls to die in the attempt.
• By the most current numbers, there are 4,400 lives lost per year to teen suicides.
• Methods of suicides among teens differ from the rest of the population. Teens try fire arms (46%), suffocation (37%; includes hanging) and poisoning (8%; includes drug overdose)
• Center for Disease Control: 15% of students self-report considering suicide, 11% report creating a plan, 7% report attempts - all within the past 12 months. One report released in 2011 has indicated that as many as ONE in FOUR middle school students had gone as far as creating a suicide plan during the previous year.

• Yale University study: Bullied people are between 2 and 9 times more likely to consider suicide than those not bullied.
• 160,000 US children stay home from school every day because of their fear of bullies.
• In the 10-24 year old age group, 84% of actual suicide deaths are from males and 16% from females.
• Among 15-24 year olds, there is a suicide every 2 hours 12 minutes. Among the elderly, a suicide every 1 hour 37 minutes. For all US ages combined, one suicide every 17 minutes.
• 2009 study: LGBT teens are 8.4 times more likely to suicide than hetero teens.

This isn't one parent's problem or a school's problem. The lives of our children are everyone's problem. The question is, what will you do about it?

You can act now and try to save a life before it is forever gone. Or you can wait until we ultimately pause to commemorate a young life lost.

* Some of the percentages may not seem to line up exactly. This is because there are minor differences from one year's study to the next and not all of these findings are from the same year. Sometimes statistics "spike.' Also, surveys and studies examine youth in five overlapping age groups: 5-14 years, 15-24 years, 12-17 years, "high school" and "teenagers;" numbers for a 12 year old are quite different from numbers for a 24 year old.