Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month: Things You Need To Know About Adolescent Suicide Risks

One person in the United States commits suicide every 12 minutes, which makes suicide awareness and prevention highly important as these gestures can possibly save a life. September is known as the National Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month and mental health care providers urge individuals to seek help if they are on the verge of taking their lives.

People struggling with hopelessness and depression may easily contemplate on taking their lives. At the brink of an eye, a person with suicidal thoughts wouldn't think twice when it comes to committing suicide. The number of suicide rate in the United States continually increase.

The surging numbers of suicide rates highly affect teenagers and adolescents which raises concerns for mental health experts. ABC News Center then mentioned that only one in every depressed suicidal individual gets the medical attention he or she needs. The low number of medical assistance among these patients plays an important factor on the increasing numbers of suicide rates.

"It's the second leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults nationwide," Leigh Gillespie, a psychiatric nurse told ABC.

Erika Flake, a psychiatric nurse practitioner also told ABC that adolescents are being placed on high risk as they'd find it hard to cope with whatever struggles life would throw. Adolescents and teenagers are often overwhelmed with emotions and daily stress, thus they are more prone to anxious and suicidal thoughts.

"Adolescents are more at risk because as we get older we develop those coping skills," Flake stated.

Parents should be keen when it comes to their child's sudden change of behavior. Dr. Jagadeesh Reddy a psychiatrist gave out a few red flags when it comes to suicidal signs. It was then added that suicidal individuals should understand that their struggles are nothing to be ashamed of and it's perfectly fine to ask for help.

"So some of the early signs we see is they are kind of isolating themselves from friends and family, that kind of gives you a red flag," Dr Reddy told WNDU. "You know they are withdrawn, there are big changes in the appetite, sometimes they lose a drastic amount of weight or gain drastically. Tiredness, fatigue for no reason and sometimes hopelessness."