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Post by reshikamendis on Nov 19, 2015 21:36:00 GMT -4
Suicide because of being under too much pressure by the parents? This could possibly be true as we have seen some cases in the clinic of 12 year old kids who were pressured by the mothers to do better in school and were told that they may have ADHD when they are just trying to be kids, but on the other hand we could relate this to last weeks article as well. When taking Cameron's death specifically, in his suicide note he mentioned his death had nothing to do with school, friends, or family. As mentioned Cameron never seemed to sleep and his friends did not believe he was studying all night despite what he was saying. There seems to be a pattern with internet addiction, video games and where the youth of today is going. As mentioned in last week's article internet addiction can cause isolation, which in turn can cause depression and eventually lead to, sadly suicide.
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Post by DavidWhitfield on Nov 20, 2015 19:22:53 GMT -4
Suicide, the one thing that crosses everyones mind but now one talks about. How is it possible that parents have caused and or allowed that much stress to enter secondary school students lives? Society constantly gives adolescents adult problems while treating them like children. We are raising an entire generation of people who are not able to function in the world we have moulded them for. We tell children form the time they are young not to judge others and to be kind then we tell them to take their grades are paramount and to take the SAT so we can judge and place a label on them. Now I am not saying that we should not quantify our young students but there must be a better way to build mentally stable, happy and healthy adolescents. Things such as zero period have no place in our learning institutions and although some children might like but it looks to me like just another piece of the puzzle leading these children down the road to ruin. Children need time to be children. Period. It is time for the adults to stand up and be accountable as adults and not allow these stressors to be placed on their children.
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Post by Christine Sipple on Nov 22, 2015 23:54:22 GMT -4
It is with such a heavy heart that I read articles such as this regarding suicide trends in young people, or another recent NY Times article about a study that shows a rising suicide rate in middle-aged white Americans that appears tied to issues of mental health, drug (including prescription) abuse, and alcohol abuse. Excessive stress, whether at work or in school, lack of sleep and declining levels of happiness seem to be common threads to both stories.
By "happiness," I do mean a true happiness that comes from being fulfilled, satisfied, and enjoying meaningful connections to other people and our communities. So many Americans think that being happy is the same thing as being entertained, excited, amused, or titillated, which it certainly is not. Culturally, we seem driven to higher and higher levels of stimulation - bigger TVs, more electronic devices, constant social media updates, riskier behaviors - at the expense of our personal connections, both to others and to ourselves. I can certainly admit to having given in to a "need" to, for instance, binge-watch a series that felt in that moment stronger than my actual need to catch up on sleep or get a little more exercise. Or to waste time on social media or playing video games.
We devote so much time to these pursuits that do not - and can never - really give back to us. It is no small wonder, then, that so many of us end up feeling depleted, alone, and hopeless at times.
The children and young adults in this article, as well as so many thousands in other communities, are simply not equipped to handle navigating the world as it is with all of the pressure, demands, and expectations that are placed on them. As adults, we really aren't, either, and we should be honest about that. And yet we keep piling it on.
Each generation seems to have less independence and more "safety nets" put in place to protect them from harm, but this lack of learning how deal with disappointments or failures through experience has robbed many young people of resilience and grit. Through technology the world around us has evolved much more quickly than we ourselves have, and in pushing the limits of our tolerance we will tragically highlight the limitations of our ability to adapt. Some of us will break. What makes it all even more tragic, of course, is that this is so unnecessary, so manufactured.
By us.
Why are we compelled to do this to ourselves and to our children, all in the name of seeking a "better" life? Why can we not elect to use our emotional intelligence and the miracle of the technology that exists to find a way to navigate the competitive world we live in a little bit more humanely, not less? Is there even a remote possibility that the trend can be reversed?
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Post by NallieneChavez on Nov 23, 2015 0:06:35 GMT -4
This article puts an emphasis on the pressure and the attitude of schools and parents that can lead to adolescents committing suicide. However, I think differently. In medicine we are put under pressure to succeed every single day, this can even lead to students facing anxiety and depression and even contemplating suicide. However, rather than blaming the amount of work or the expectations to do work, a better alternative may be to consider teaching children, adolescents and adults how to cope with pressure. If we do not give our children expectations of succeeding and instill in them the importance of aiming high, then what is there to motivate them to do so? What is there to teach them that they can accomplish anything they want? How do you know that you have succeeded if you do not know that you have given it all you’ve got? Perhaps the issue is not that our expectations are too high, but that they are not accompanied by enough support, from family, teachers, classmates. I have felt pressure to succeed every single day of my life, felt the need and pressure to keep doing better; but my dad was always at the other end of the phone telling me that I could do anything that I wanted and how much he believed in me. This encouragement can offset pressure any day of the week.
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Post by Amy Jones on Dec 9, 2015 10:30:22 GMT -4
It seems that the pressures on teens to fit in are increasing disproportionately to their ability reason. Often their insight is short and limited. They typically will have increased anxieties which may lead to reclusive behaviors that are misread by their peers as impersonal or rude. In addition to the anxieties based around their school day, many of these children are coming home to one parent families. They are often faced with the challenges of wondering what they will, and if the electricity will be on when they get home. In the families where money isn't the issue, there is often a lack of relationship between the parents and child. In two parent families most of the time both parents are working at least 9-5 which leaves little time for the children to connect with their parents. Additional many of the top jobs in America are increasingly becoming less family friendly and requiring more and more additional time spent at home working. This creates a scenario whereby children and parents are at home together at night, but they are separate: the child is working on their school assignments, which have increased to include many project based assignments; the parents working on their take home work from their jobs.
The solution is for Americans to place their value in the proper place. Family first. Once corporate America begins to value employees as a people, and they begin to recognize that people perform better when they are spiritually and physically connected to family. Then our children will have parents at home to come to. Then hopefully some of these instances can be avoided.
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