1. One of the possible reasons that pushes one to suicide would be reaching the end of one's tether or literally running out of alternatives or options. May not be that options are not available but the capacity or skills of identifying alternatives are not developed.

2. Both global and extraneous pressures need to be considered. A decision making mind looks out for support system for further survival. A world which rejects a loser, and conducts elimination rounds to select the fittest is one of the causes for suicides. Mind training to reject such global mentality, withstand peer pressures which promote competition, ability to design one's own standards, definitions, and methods of life's goals are critical.

Thanks for your valid suggestions Antony Kannanayakkal Joseph, Your contribution will surely enhance our further reflections and our educative interventions especially for and with the young people.

I am very grateful to Shazia Kardar and Antony Kannanayakkal Joseph for their enriching contribution. Waiting for few more suggestions/prposals. The Editor of The Teenager Today has given me time till Monday 27th July to submit the article.

An important contribution to increasing suicide rates is that more and more people are being prescribed antidepressants which can trigger violence, including suicidal and homicidal behaviour. Below is a section of an essay I wrote on anger and violent behaviour:

An important trend in the richer nations is a massive increase in usage of antidepressants. According to the CDC, from 1988–1994 through 2005–2008, the rate of antidepressant use in the United States among all ages increased nearly 400%. Eleven percent of Americans aged 12 years and over take antidepressant medication. Similar trends have been documented in other western nations. While increasing rates of depression are a factor, so are indications for prescribing—which have widened to include anxiety and eating disorders.

Why is this important? Because all antidepressant treatments (or, at least, all treatments which work!) can induce a manic or hypomanic state, particularly in individuals with bipolar disorder. Irritability is a cardinal symptom of such states. Thus, the increased use of antidepressants almost certainly has led to an increase in irritability.

Perhaps more frightening is the warning appearing in the Canadian CPS (Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties): “There are clinical trial and post-marketing reports with SSRIs and other newer anti-depressants, in both pediatrics and adults, of severe agitation-type adverse events coupled with self-harm or harm to others. The agitation-type events include: akathisia, agitation, disinhibition, emotional lability, hostility, aggression, depersonalization. In some cases, the events occurred within several weeks of starting treatment.” These types of warnings were added in response to a number of lawsuits brought against drug manufacturers for failure to warn, where damages were awarded to families of victims of homicide or suicide believed to be induced by SSRI antidepressants. Having this warning in the prescribing information, of course, protects the drug manufacturers from further liability. Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche, a specialist in internal medicine and professor at the University of Copenhagen, co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 and established the Nordic Cochrane Centre; he provides details on many cases of SSRI-induced violence in his 2015 book “Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial”. Then there are psychiatrists Dr. Peter Breggin in New York state and Dr. David Healy, whose successes as expert witnesses in lawsuits against big pharma very likely stimulated the addition of those warnings. Studies of adverse events published in PLOS One and in the British Medical Journal support the contention that antidepressants stimulate aggression and violence.

The whole essay, with links to references, is here: https://henry.olders.ca/wordpress/?p=1404

Best wishes on your article!

Thanks very much Henry Olders. You offered me a significant aspect to be considered. Thanks for giving me the link to the whole essay. I will read it with great interest. Very kind of you to extend your best wishes on my article, it is going to be a very short one as there is space and word limit.

Suicide is a consequence of depression. The cause of depression is a disorder of physiological processes in the body. Depression is caused by improper functioning of the human body. Improper functioning of the body leads to stress and punishment by the brain's punishment system. Depression is caused by very severe disorders in the body, which are present in 99% of the population. Part of the population adapts to violations, while in part of the population violations lead to suicide. Depression is caused by not knowing how the body is supposed to work. Through depression, the body signals disorders, but the person does nothing. Lack of food, lack of water, low temperatures all lead to stress and can lead to death. In the case of depression, disorders accumulate in the body that are clearly not reported. But they are important for the body and activate the brain punishment system. Latent depression or depression for no reason leads to suicide.

Thanks very much Vasil Grigoriev, your contribution reached me just in time and I appreciate the clarity and logicality with which you have explained the cause of depression and how suicide is a consequence of it.

Thank you Dr. Teresa for such a profound subject inquiry. In my opinion, students today are the victims of the over expectations. the pressure is not only from the education system, but we have also made the job and employment world very very uncertain today. Of course, there are many factors for that, but somewhere we educationists have failed to accept our students in complete totality. We have burdened them with our own anxieties and this burden is sometimes too much for young minds to carry on. Parents, teachers, and society in general have a collective responsibility to accept our students in totality.

Thanks very much Dr. Preeti Oza, you brought in a very down to earth point: students today are the victims of the over expectations and the pressure from various sectors. Thanks also for suggesting a valid response: to accept our students in complete totality.

A special request to Prof. Henry Olders and Vasil Grigoriev to see the pre-print I have uploaded integrating your contribution on the increasing number of suicides. The title is:

Can’t believe that she is no more…

Thanks

Dear Teresa, could you kindly post your pre-print as a pdf, rather than a docx file? Thank you!

Yes Henry Olders

Thanks for the reminder

Henry Olders

The pre-print is now posted as a pdf file.

Due to power cut I had to wait a while. Sorry for the delay.

Thanks

Suicidal ideation in young people stem from different sources. Here is our take on the issue: