FREE ESSAY ON SUICIDE

SUICIDE

Suicide can best be described as the destructive act of voluntarily taking one's own life.
Suicide often presents a real and often tragic puzzle to be solved by friends and family,
and any other professionals who have been involved with someone who has committed
suicide. To be able to definitively answer the question as to why an individual would
commit such a deadly act seems to be a highly complex task. The victim himself or
herself, is perhaps the least aware of the answer to this ninth leading cause of death.
Scientists have discovered that the cause of this fatal behavior can be found both within
and without the individual. Whether biological, sociological or psychological the
question remains as to which one will provide explanations to suicidal behavior. Or
perhaps, could the answer be that all these factors are somehow interrelated. Whatever
the case may be the statistics are frighteningly real.
There is more suicide deaths than homicides in the United States every year. Unbelievably
so, suicide is in fact the ninth leading cause of death in the United Stated. For the
young, consisting up to the age of fifteen, it is the third cause of death in the United
States. Rounded to the nearest second, on average, every seventeen seconds one person
will complete this self-destructive act resulting in death. Men account for eighty
percent of all suicides in the United States and are more likely than women to be
successful at killing themselves. There are, rounded to the nearest person, one female
suicide completion to every four male suicide completions. Suicides committed using
firearms make up over sixty percent of the population that has committed suicide. Of this
sixty- percent of firearm suicide, white men make up eighty percent of this statistic.
Every year there are seven hundred seventy-five thousand suicide attempts in the United
States. It is estimated that five million Americans have attempted suicide. For every
male suicide attempt there are three female attempts. The majority of overdose attempts
is unsuccessful and account for seventy percent of suicide attempts (SFSP: U.S. Suicide
Statistics, 1996).
It is estimated that for every suicide there is six survivors close to the victims that
are affected. The statistics are stunning. How can we understand better why individuals
would take their own life (McIntosh, 1997)
The conclusion that suicide is closely related to psychiatric illness is what researchers
have come up with. The three diagnoses with the highest risk are depression, alcoholism
and schizophrenia. Seventy percent of suicides would have been diagnosed with major
depression. Fifteen percent would have been diagnosed with alcoholism and four percent
from schizophrenia. Researchers have used two methods to come up with these findings. The
first one, the researchers find out what proportion of people who have committed suicide
have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness in their past. The second method of
research involves what is called psychological autopsy. Psychological autopsy involves
carefully questioning the family members and friends of the suicide victim. These
questions are in reference to the individual state of mind, mood and behavior of the
deceased individual preceding his or her death. The conclusion that the majority of
suicides were the result of psychiatric illness before death has been strongly supported
by these two research techniques (Williams, 1997).
Major depression carries a fifteen- percent lifetime risk associated with suicide.
Depression is a state of mind that results in feelings of helplessness, hopelessness,
alienation, and uncontrollable urges to shed an unwanted self. Often, depression includes
a variety of physical complaints that cannot be diagnosed as a physical illness. It is
normal for any individual to feel depression at one time or another. In addition, there
are many factors associated with depression. Any individual dealing with overwhelming
amounts of stress can experience depression. However, it is when a person stays depressed
for extended periods of time, that the likelihood of having suicidal urges increases
(Williams, 1997).
Similar to that of depressed individuals, Alcoholics also carry a fifteen- percent
lifetime risk of suicide. Alcohol dependence can be expressed in one of three ways. By
consuming alcohol excessively on a daily basis. Second, by consuming excessive amounts of
alcohol on a regular weekend basis. Third, by excessively consuming alcohol on binges
lasting weeks or months. With alcoholics in mind, men are six times more likely to commit
suicide than women are (Williams, 1997).
One percent of the population suffers from schizophrenia at one time or another.
Schizophrenia involves a range of symptoms including delusions, disorder in the form of
thought, disorders of perception, or a change in moods. Consequently, these individuals
often have a difficult time associating with other people in society. Studies have been
proven that up to fifteen percent of the population of schizophrenics will commit
suicide. In addition, as in the case of alcoholics, men are more prone to suicide than
women (Williams, 1997) 
The very field of sociology was in part founded on the discovery that suicide rates are
just as much a sociological phenomenon as they are psychological. Around the turn of the
century, French sociologist Emile Durkeim found that single people were more likely to be
victims than married individuals, Protestants more likely than Catholics, urban residents
more likely than rural residents. Arguing that suicide was related to the nature of bonds
between self and society, Durkheim argued that either excessive or deficient levels of
integration and regulation lead to four ideal types of suicide (Spalding & Simpson,
1951).
The four ideal types of suicide consist of egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic.
Perhaps the most prevalent form in the United States is egoistic. Egoistic is explained
as the result of too little social integration. An example, would be the suicide of a
retired elderly widow. The second, altruistic is the consequence of excessive
integration. Such as the death of a Japanese kamikaze pilot during World War II or the
act of self-sacrifice upon finding out that a leader or chief is dead. 
Altruistic is when an individual strips himself or herself of their well being for
another cause or to feel a part of something. The third ideal type is anomic, which
results from too little regulation or the shattering of one's ties with society. A good
example would be such as when an individual goes through a divorce or an individual
suddenly finds himself or herself unemployed. Fatalistic is the fourth ideal type. This
form is the result of excessive regulation coupled with high personal needs for an
individual to control his or her environment. An example of this would be such as when a
straight A college student fails an exams and upon doing so, takes his own life (Spalding
& Simpson, 1951). 
So what is the conclusion in understanding why individuals take their own lives? In 1996,
Margaux Hemingway committed suicide with an overdose of sedatives. This brought back
memories of other suicides in her family such as her grandfather, his brother, his sister
and his father. Could the answer be genetic? Do people inherit certain vulnerabilities
toward depression that results in death by suicide? Or does this story indicate an
intergenerational socialization pattern, by which committing suicide is an acceptable way
of addressing a problem learned by an acceptable family way. What if certain personality
types are more predisposed? However, historical and anthropological studies show how
different cultures seem to produce distinctive spectrums of personality types and that
these types can change over time. In other words, the proportion of suicidal-prone
individuals in a population is socioculturally determined. Further, changing social
conditions can either trigger or suppress the suicidal urge of these types of selves. In
conclusion, suicide seems to be a highly complex phenomenon that involves interactions
between genetic, biochemical, psychological, societal and cultural factors (Hendin,
1984).
I personally believe that suicide is a selfish act committed by an individual as an
answer to their problems. Many times, such as written in this research paper, the cause
of suicide can be determined by psychiatric illness such as depression, alcoholism, and
schizophrenia. 
However, I do believe in the concept that suicide can result from a lack of integration
of the individual into society. The question remains is it psychological, biological or
sociological? Suicide results from such complex factors that the answer would have to be
all of the above. How an individual operates in society involves biological,
psychological and sociological factors. Therefore the conclusive answer to such a complex
question would have to be that it carries such factors that would make it a product of
psychological, biological, and sociological.
Twenty-four years ago, when my mother was sixteen, she was at school when she had two
police officers come get her out of her class. The police officers would not tell her
why. They only explained that they were taking her home. Upon arriving home, she found
out that her father had shot himself. He left behind a wife and four daughters that were
devastated and had to learn to deal with it. Silence was their form of dealing with it.
For many years I have had questions as to why. Also, how did it affect my mother and how
does she feel about. But, I have never gotten any complete answers to these questions.
Nobody in the family has ever wanted to talk about the suicide. It is not a death that
survivors go through the grieving process and then all of the sudden one-day feel free
and at peace with the death. This is the type of death that survivors never feel at peace
with. In fact, it affects generations of family members, to this day I do not feel at
peace with the suicide of my grandfather.
However, upon being so curious I can ascertain that my grandfather was a human being that
was not well. My mother grew up in a very poor atmosphere. Here clothes were borrowed
from other families who did not want them anymore or the clothes were handed down from
her older sisters. They had a small farm and could only afford to eat what they grew on
their farm. At the time of his suicide, my grandfather was unemployed. He had an awful
argument with my grandmother. He left for several days and no one could find him. Later,
they found out that he had been sleeping in the crawl space underneath the house. He had
over time completely isolated himself from his friends and family. 
In addition, he started to have regular outbursts of anger. In the aftermath of this
event, there is not one picture that you will find of him. Before he shot himself, he
went through every picture and cut his face and in some his entire body. To conclude,
sociologically speaking he had isolated himself from society. Furthermore, he was
definitely in a state of major depression. Whether he was depressed first and therefore
became isolated from society or isolated from society first therefore becoming depressed
is unclear to me. The conclusion that I can make is fact that many factors were involved
in this suicide. 
If you have every read the Story of Romeo and Juliet this was a suicide that occurred
because of the social conflict of the two families. Because they were in love, they
stepped out of their societies to try to make it work. Was it fate that brought these
star-crossed lovers to such fatal self-destruction? Or was it caused by two families that
refused to step out of their societies to allow such a thing Romeo and Juliet to be
together?
There is only one alternative to suicide that I can think of. Individuals seem to commit
suicide when they feel pressured by society. Suicidal people have problems and feel there
is no alternative, their best solution would be to die. The individual cannot fathom the
fact that maybe they can fix their problems. Unquestionable suicide is not the answer to
anyone's problems. If society worked together to help suicidal individuals in distress
know that there is a solution, then maybe we would have less suicide.
In conclusion, the alternative to suicide is that there is no problem so large that in
constitutes self-killing. No matter what solutions anyone came up with, there is always
going to be suicide. However, by understanding suicide and the many factors that cause
it, we could start to try to lessen the statistics.