About each year, 30,000 Americans commit suicide. Five thousand of those people are regular teens. Every 100 minutes, another teenager will die of committing suicide. IMAGINE THAT! Over the past years in America, suicide rates with teens have been increasing dramatically. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among the young people of the United States, right behind motor vehicles accidents and homicides. All the schools in the United States should have counselors so they could help the students with the symptoms of suicide.

Studies show that untreated depression is the number one cause of teen suicide. Depression is an illness that affects twelve percent of teens. More than 60 percent of all people who kill themselves have major depression. Depression is when someone has deep feelings of sadness or hopelessness that continues for more than two weeks.

Suicides in schools have been a big problem with a lot of teens. Recent studies show that 60 percent of high school students considered suicide. The common age of kids or teens thinking about suicide is just before they hit puberty. Some reasons why teens think of suicide is that they might have broken up with someone, they might have had an argument with their parents, they had a failing grade, they lost some type of competition, they got teased and bullied, and they might have been blamed for something that they had done. Teens with a family member who had died by suicide are at risk to do suicide too. They think that it is an acceptable way out of all of their problems. Between thirty to fifty percent of teen suicides occur under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The divorce of teen’s parents can also trigger suicide for the teen. The death of a close friend or a family member may lead to suicide, too. Even college students are at risk of committing suicide. College students have to deal with unfamiliar territory; they have to meet new people all the time; they have to deal with not getting support from their parents in big difficult times; they don’t get enough sleep; they have to meet the expectations of college; and they are always away from their homes and family. However, these are not the only factors of suicide.

Some other reasons why they might commit suicide are that they might have a mental illness. Anything like depression, bipolar disorder, psychiatric illness, schizophrenia, and personality disorders are all examples of mental illnesses. One mental illness that is common is bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is also called maniac depression. This is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood. They could be really happy at one point, and then they could be really depressed in a very short amount of time. This disease cannot be cured, but can be treated with medication, counseling, and family member support.

A celebrity singer named Kurt Cobain had bipolar disorder. He was the founder and lead singer of a rock band called Nirvana. He struggled with this illness almost all of his life. Then on April 5, 1994, he committed suicide.

Every teen can fall victim to suicide. You might think that the popular kids can’t fall victim to suicide, but they can. Teens that are gifted at school and sports are at risk to suicide, too. Their pressure to succeed all the time might put them at risk for depression and committing suicide.

There’s a seventeen year old boy named Ben. He’s one of the best students in his class that always studies hard to keep straight A’s. He could be the first person in his whole family to go to college. His whole family is very proud of him. He does very badly on his college entrance exam. He thinks that he will never get to go to college. He’s depressed and mad at himself that he let everyone down. This story shows that anyone can fall victim to depression.

Some people say that people should not interfere with the teens that have the symptoms of suicide, that it is not a school problem but a family problem. To some people it should be a family problem because it is not the other person’s responsibility to deal with the teenager. It should be the parent’s responsibility to deal with all the teenager’s problems and stress because it’s their own child. However, I believe that other people should help the teens with depression and the urge to do suicide. I believe that anyone that young shouldn’t kill themselves. Suicide does not only affect the person, but it also affects all the people and family members around them. Suicide is not the right way to get out of all of your problems.

The reason why I think they should have counselors in schools is because no teenager should kill themselves that early in life. They should experience the excitements of the world around them. All the schools in the United States should have counselors so they could help the students with the symptoms of suicide. I hope that one day every school in the United States has counselors so we can decrease the percentage of teens committing suicide, and so that no one ever loses anyone close to them anymore because of suicide.