Teenagers today

[dong]

Cool. Can't be hatin' for others being a smartass, since I'm one too

 

[palefrost]

I think part of it is also at that age you want to rebel and stick out. Every generation of teenagers have done it in some way. I remember growing up we did the piercing thing. At the time it was mostly ears though lol. Each generation takes it one step further.

 

[dong]

That's a nice way to put it Palefrost. Kinda like:

"People who want to be different end up obscuring those who are different, until it is impossible to tell the two apart." Of course, the former want to indicate this by showing in some socially recognised way how they're different.

Wow, this is still relevant to the original post.

 

[daria564]

Whichever you would personally choose, I can tell you that more likely than not a person who has real psychological issues will not act out in such a manner as these teens.

that's actually a very inaccurate point of view. talk to some psych nurses at crisis centers and in hospitals. suicide is a form of "acting out". there are plenty of cases of clinically depressed patients who are repeat suicides because they're reinforced by the attention they get from their attempts.

 

[daria564]

just a question here, but: if all these kids are just "acting out" and aren't really depressed, then why is the suicide rate highest in the youngest age brackets?

 

[dong]

You should refer to the absolute rate of suicide as a proportion of the population and remember that people present across a wide spectrum. That said, this observation does hold a fair degree of import- while I cannot really think of a good way to draw up some kind of co-efficient or index for exposure to environmental stress for youth (in the way that the DALY index is constructed), the general consensus is that these days youth do seem to have a greater psychological burden these days.

Add to this the consideration of social mechanisms and how awareness of depression is manifest in this age bracket (like in the whole "emo" thing) and the issue becomes as clouded as it is now.