<p>I would just add that, as a group, adolescents (and by that word, I am not referring to someone in college, but those in their teens) are impulsive and often labile. A diagnosis of major depression requires at least two weeks of symptoms. Some adolescents are capable of making an impulsive and permanent decision in far less than two weeks or even two days. Part of what makes adolescence a high-risk period is because they are impulsive, labile and don’t have a fully developed brain in terms of judgement, etc.</p>
<p>[Yale</a> Daily News - University to step up counseling](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2010/04/01/university-step-counseling/]Yale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2010/04/01/university-step-counseling/)</p>
<p>my last post, again, to wrap up a growing philosophy.
I, for one, don’t think this is just black and white/mental illness v “healthy”: a surgeon will see things through the eyes of that discipline and cite stats to prove their point and a mental health provider will see things through theirs, no other discipline/philosophy will do. It is normal. The main problem most are stating is the age of the person involved in this situation. Youth does not include death, unless you are unhealthy in some way. It is not a rational choice. This is common in a Christian based society.</p>
<p>excerpt from someone’s opinion on the subject of suicide as a rational decision for some, regardless of health and age, just like it is my opinion on the matter: [Jacob</a> M. Appel: Next: Assisted Suicide for Healthy People](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost)</p>
<p>…" I do not mean to suggest that autonomy does not have its appropriate limits or that suicide-on-demand should not be subject to meaningful regulation. Mental capacity – the legal standard for making medical decisions – should be required to honor such a request. Psychotic patients, for example, ought not be allowed to kill themselves during psychosis. Similarly, a seventeen-year-old girl, distraught after an argument with her boyfriend, should not be able to walk into a hospital emergency room and demand an immediate overdose of Tylenol. Society is within its bounds to require rational, informed choices, expressed over a reasonable period of time. Efforts should be made to ascertain that no undue pressure or duress lies behind the longing to die. Indian widows, coerced into throwing themselves onto funeral pyres, do not further the cause of individual liberty. Needless to say, despite the cries of alarmists, no sane people intend to force assisted suicide upon the unwilling to fulfill some dystopic vision."…
to me, the choice of suicide was not as disturbing as it was the manner of death…jumping off a building would signal some underlying condition, but not definitely.</p>
<p>aww, that’s soo sad!! Does anybody know why he killed himself? poor thing…what an awful way to put an end to your life</p>
<p>“I’m a child & adolescent psychiatrist with 25 years of experience.” </p>
<p>I know, which is why I wrote what I did. I think this: “Stress reactions and “breakdowns” that lead to sucide almost always represent underlying longstanding psychological problems” is very, very off-base. </p>
<p>Young people <em>are</em> impulsive. They also don’t have perspective. That’s not necessarily a “mental illness” nor a sign that they’re not psychologically healthy. I do think these schools may put too much pressure on the kids and I want to get away from the idea that parents aren’t being responsive or aren’t listening. Sometimes, especially when the students are far away, the parents don’t know the depth of the student’s stress.</p>
<p>
Young adults are impulsive… very sad.:(</p>
<p>any idea on why they/or anyone would choose such painful, gory, outrageous manner of suicide like jumping in front of moving trains, leaping off buildings, bridges, etc? I mean nowadays they have access to a variety of drugs, unfortunately, why not that manner?
If I was seeking an end to physical or emotional pain I would not choose such painful way.
I guess that’s why people in pain tend to seek physician assisted, for things like an OD of narcotics.<br>
It is almost like a competition for the most memorable, attention seeking and media attracting manner of death. A narcissistic tendency? (just applying some psychology to the actions, but I am no expert)</p>
<p>“Sometimes, especially when the students are far away, the parents don’t know the depth of the student’s stress.” completely agree with that. Unfortunately, I also found myself unknowingly “pushing” my D to stay in a Summer internship that was making her miserable and almost bringing her to the point of a breakdown. I felt that if she waited it out, it would resolve itself. After hanging up the latter phone call with her(4 wks into the internship), another one where she was crying and emotionally drained sounding, and thinking about what was more important; her resume or her health, I called her back and told her I would support her choice of returning home earlier than the internship length, that her mental health was more important than looking good as a representative for her college. I had to work hard at accepting her “quitting” before she was done. I did not want her to feel undue pressure from me too. It can be very subtle and tricky, how we influence their actions. That was a “whew!” moment for me, TG it dawned on me what I was unknowingly doing! I now keep that in the back of my mind, especially when she talks about dropping a class.</p>
<p>No one has mentioned the chance that this kid could have killed someone else walking by on the sidewalk when he landed. If you are going to kill yourself, don’t risk killing someone else in the process.</p>
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</p>
<p>Thank you, you put into words what I was struggling to articulate. </p>
<p>I think many youthful suicides are caused not by mental illness, but by the natural short-sightedness and impulsiveness which is part of youth.</p>
<p>TomofBoston, I didn’t mention it, but I certainly thought it. I find it troubling.</p>
<p>TomofBoston, it was one of the first things that crossed my mind. This is such a horrible tragedy but it could have been so much worse if there were a crowd of people standing in in his path.</p>
<p>I cannot help but think that this was something that has crossed many peoples’ minds, it certainly did mine. I also cannot help but wonder if perhaps he knew this as well, since he did this in the height of rush hour on a weekday, in midtown where there are thousands of people milling about on those very busy streets right below the Empire state building. In fact, its shocking that no one down below thankfully, did die was or was seriously injured.</p>
<p>I can’t help but think that the high profile nature of the two choices of where he chose to end his life had a hidden message and likely it was revealed in the note that he left behind. I doubt, as some have suggested, that it had any correlation to the plight of the people whom he studies, but I do think that he was sending some kind of message and made a very deliberate decision to travel all the way to NYC, a good 2 hour trip in rush hour from New Haven or even a bit longer to the GW bridge.</p>
<p>It is so tragic and I cannot imagine the grief and torment and questions that his family have been left with. My heart and prayers go out to them.</p>
<p>[Promising</a> Yale Student’s Suicide off Empire State Building Leaves Behind Shock and Grief - DNAinfo.com](<a href=“http://dnainfo.com/20100401/midtown-east-kips-bay/promising-yale-students-suicide-off-empire-state-building-leaves-behind-shock-grief]Promising”>http://dnainfo.com/20100401/midtown-east-kips-bay/promising-yale-students-suicide-off-empire-state-building-leaves-behind-shock-grief)</p>
<p>tomofboston, do we know that the student fell to the sidewalk? The Empire State Building has many setbacks. He may have chosen a spot where he would land on a roof.</p>
<p>He did in fact land on the sidewalk, see article below:</p>
<p>[Man</a> who leaped to death from Empire State Building ID’d as Yale University student Cameron Dabaghi](<a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/03/31/2010-03-31_man_who_leaped_to_death_from_empire_state_building_idd_as_yale_university_studen.html]Man”>http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/03/31/2010-03-31_man_who_leaped_to_death_from_empire_state_building_idd_as_yale_university_studen.html)</p>
<p>I hadn’t seen that. How terrible.</p>
<p>@Hanna</p>
<p>If you jump from the 86th floor of the Empire State building, you do not choose where you land!</p>
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</p>
<p>I wondered the exact same thing. And in this case, the young man chose to go a fair distance away to one of the most famous buildings in the world. I cannot imagine the terror of falling that far. I’m one of the chickens who would certainly choose the less painful, more peaceful ways of going out.</p>
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</p>
<p>I’m not one who usually subscribes to the “suicide is so selfish” philosophy as I think many times, the person is not thinking rationally and views his act as something that will remove a burden from others (they’ll be better off without me). But suicides which put others at peril bother me more in that way. I recently read about a 17 y/o young mother who committed suicide by putting her car head on in the path of a large truck. Fortunately, the other driver wasn’t killed, but he certainly could have been fatally injured. It made me angry that she deliberately put another life at risk in order to end her own, when she certainly had other options. But again, it’s not possible to always apply logic to those who may not be thinking logically.</p>
<p>I don’t think i would even go to an ivy league college if i’m accepted (sophomore now) based on the life-style of their students.</p>
<p>Its really not about how big of a college you go to, just how well you do in it. And you need to live a good life, not just study constantly for the sake of receiving a lot of recognition. I’m planning on going to UF, which is still the top school in Florida, but its also the biggest PARTY school on the east coast.</p>
<p>this captures what I was hoping to convey in an earlier post here…about listening to our teens/college students</p>
<p>[Mark</a> Goulston, M.D.: Just Listen: Hell Is a Suicidal Teenager](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Just Listen: Hell Is a Suicidal Teenager | HuffPost Life)</p>