The Epidemic of Youth Suicide By Mrs Vera West

Across the West there is observed in almost all jurisdictions, an epidemic of youth suicide, much of this related to mental health issues, which I previously covered at the blog. For example, in the US, mental-health-related visits among children, teenagers, and young adults increased between 2011 and 2020, from 4.8 million to 7.5 million, and psychiatric patients' share of all paediatric and young-adult emergency visits increased from 7.7 to 13.1 percent. Admissions related to suicide nearly quadrupled, from 0.9 to 4.2 percent of all paediatric emergency visits. And, this is no longer just a problem for males, as the number of adolescent girls admitted to emergency following suicide attempts rose by almost 51 percent between 2019 and 2021.

This surge in suicides, and attempted suicides occurs with the background of the elimination of the once strong moral and religious prohibition against suicide. Along with that some LGBT activists endorse suicide as a means of protest. Further, there is the added anomie produced by the machinations of present-day society, which with its threats and tensions, would be enough to drive any thinking sensitive person to despair and depression. All in all, it is a wonder that the suicide rate is not even higher. With lifelong unemployment produced by the rapid AI revolution, things may get even worse.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-are-so-many-kids-attempting-suicide/

“The American Medical Association found that even as the total number of pediatric emergency room visits declined, mental-health-related visits among children, teenagers, and young adults surged between 2011 and 2020, from 4.8 million to 7.5 million.

In that span, psychiatric patients' share of all pediatric and young-adult E.R. visits nearly doubled, from 7.7 to 13.1 percent. While visits related to psychosis, depression, drug and alcohol abuse increased, the New York Times reported that the share of admissions related to suicide nearly quadrupled, from 0.9 to 4.2 percent of all pediatric E.R. visits. This finding dovetails with a study we covered two years ago, which found the number of adolescent girls admitted to emergency rooms following suicide attempts rose nearly 51 percent between 2019 and 2021.

Technology and social media, which have the effect of isolating people and coarsening conversations, have almost certainly contributed to the increase. So has the erosion of religious and moral norms against suicide.

One factor that hasn't been adequately considered, especially in the context of adolescents, is LGBT activists' endorsement of suicide as a means of protest. When LGBT activists, for example, ask "non-affirming" parents whether they would "rather have a living son or a dead daughter," they suggest that suicide is a legitimate, practically necessary recourse for a child who is not "affirmed" by her parents. Vulnerable children, whether they identify as transgender or not, are prone to internalize and act on that logic, as the AMA report illustrates.”