Teenage Wasteland

Fact: In 1996, more teenagers and young adults died of suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease combined.

Fact: In 1996, suicide was the second-leading cause of death among college students, the third-leading cause of death among those aged 15 to 24 years, and the fourth-leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 14 years.

Fact: From 1980 to 1996, the rate of suicide among African-American males aged 15 to 19 years increased by 105 percent. (1)

Fact: Between 1957 and 1975, the rate of suicide among Native American adolescents increased 1000%.

Fact: Maria's close friend, just last week became a suicide statistic. She attended the funeral on Friday and has talked some about it, but probably not enough. Distraught is probably how I would judge her affect. And all the usual questions come, how can we help? How can we help understand? Is it better to keep going, or to take a little time off to grieve? How do we recognize the emotionally oppressed, the outcasts most prone to self-loathing and feeling trapped? A close friend committed suicide in 1990, and I have to say that I still don't have the answers.