And So Young, Too....

Many teenagers in the midst of the best times of their youth personally decide to end their own lives. With a wave of the sleeves, they are here now and then gone forever.

"It is difficult to guard against youth suicide because they do not give any advanced warning," sighs a psychiatrist. Teenage suicide methods are strange and unpredictable.

From what is already known, emotional problems are responsible for a vast majority of these suicides.

According to the studies by health and medical agencies in the Taiwan district, the major causes of "permanent traumatism" among young adults are emotional disturbances and domestic turmoil. U.S. psychiatrists point out that broken homes and a gradual increase in the divorce rate leads to more psychological pressure, which acts as a fuse to even more suicides.

But, these are merely superficial causes. One should go one step ahead and wonder, "Why do teenagers kill themselves over emotional crises? How have they become so fragile?"

"Psychologists say that today's Japanese youth suicide methods are based on a chain reaction popular psychology. Educators maintain that schools and teachers do not place enough trust in them. Sociologists say this is a well-fed generation and everyone is like a flower raised in a greenhouse, or like a caged bird or a goldfish in a bowl. After a long period of being cooped-up and raised these individuals are unable to adjust to any other environment with their 'delicate nerves'," writes Wang Hsuan, an ROC writer who was once a student in Japan and is studying the incidence of suicide among Japanese youth.

Whether one is in the home, school, or society, an inappropriate environment forces a psychological pressure on youth which leaves him unable to face the oncoming waves of humanity. This is why many who go elsewhere to college often become maladjusted during the changes that occur away from home. A new environment and encounters with a different circle of people can lead some to thoughts of ending it all with suicide.

Upon graduation many other changes such as occupational concerns and marriage make their appearance. These new kind of setbacks again can lead to depression and thoughts of suicide.

Last year the Mackay Memorial Hospital Suicide Prevention Center handled 240 suicide cases and the bulk of them had to do with emotional problems between dating couples. During the same period, the "Suicide Hotline" received 36,000 distress calls, most of them diagnosed as emotional or marriage problems.

Society's rapid and extensive changes have had their effects on attitudes towards the family and other institutional changes. When change becomes too quick, some people simply "lose track" or lose touch with reality. They become individuals with no direction, value judgments, or outlook on life. In short, these young adults do not know why they are living for, so they simply kill themselves.

During the 36th year of Meiji, a Japanese youth carved the characters "mountain ridge headed feeling" on the think of a large tree trunk and then moments later plunged to his death in a steep waterfall. The agencies assigned to the case determined the cause of death as the "influence of philosophical research." Before ten years were up, over 200 people imitated the youth by killing themselves the same way.

Not long ago a famous Japanese singer committed suicide by jumping off a building and inadvertently started a craze for this method of suicide. Many teenagers followed this path to eternity.

Actually, in these rather fashionable circumstances it is difficult to track down the real motive.

A psychiatrist said, "A good bow, arrows, and string, does not guarantee the hitting of the target."

The younger generation should be given more than material sustenance by their parents; they should be given a sense of direction or moral wealth as well.

A Few Figures on Suicide

The suicide rate is higher for men than for women, by 1.5 times in the ROC, but women are three times more apt to attempt it.

Suicide is seasonal, more common in the summer, possibly due to changes in hormonal secretions.

Taking poison is the most common form.

The suicide rate in the U.S. and South Africa is three times lower for blacks than for whites.

Most suicides take place in the home.

The rate is lower in wartime than in peace.

Source: ROC National Health Administration/Lin Hsien/Mackay Memorial Hospital.

SUICIDE RATES BY SEX, TAIWAN AREA.

Do you know what today's "punks" are thinking? Are they trying to say something through their appearance?