Michael Lau

November 22, 2014

ENC1101/Massey
Community Problem Report
The world has been plagued with an epidemic that is slowly and quietly taking the lives
of loved ones. The Silent Epidemic is its nickname but everyone knows it as suicide. Some
may know the word quite well and others may not know of the word suicide, especially of the
effect it has on the world. It has become a growing problem all around the world and only a few
have taken it into account and paid attention and care to it. However, there is not enough people
who know about suicide and not enough people trying to prevent it. According to the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the second leading cause of death for middle
and high school age youth and the third leading cause of death for college aged youth.
Suicide takes the lives of people of all gender, ages, and races and it affects so many
people from immediate families, friends, the community, and the person who committed suicide.
It is a tragedy that is occurring often and rising in the past years; since 1980, there has been a
128% increase in suicide rates. Suicide is caused by many factors such as bullying, relationship
problems, exposure to a suicide, stress and a number of psychological disorders like depression,
bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. An analysis found three classes of youth who attempted
suicide, distinct by their levels of substance use and violent behaviors. All three classes had a
high tendency of having depressive symptoms (Pena). All these causations lead to suicide in
many people all over the world, especially depression. Four out of five people who have
attempted suicide say they have given clear warning signs of them wanting to commit suicide

and no one had noticed or cared enough. The suicide rates in different countries differ due to
economic issues and inequality issues they face in their countries, like in Taiwan the suicide
rate is much higher than the U.S due to socioeconomic factors (Jiang). The usage of firearms in
committing suicide is just over 50% with 50.9% and the second is suffocation with 24.8% and
poisoning with 16.6% and other just 7.7%. Suicide should not be taken likely as it is a real
growing problem all over the world just like disease and crime.
Suicide affects the victim, of course, by taking their life. The person would no longer be
among us and could not experience life and create an impact on the world. What if that person
was the person to create the cure for cancer or to end world hunger? Or the parent of a family or
spouse? The world would never experience the impact of that person. Now the persons family
would be affected greatly by their suicide. The family would grieve for their lost so much and
anybody who knew the person or was close to them as well. They would all be saddened. Also,
suicide could affect the lives of others by others experiencing it. They see it and are scarred and
fall into depression which can lead to major depression disorder. People who are already on the
brink of going over can be affected and realize that others are doing it freely so they do it to.
Also, people who attempt to commit suicide usually need to receive treatment or hospital care
which costs at an estimated 2 billion a year. Also, for treating patients who have psychological
disorders and have attempted suicide, there are a bunch of costs going into all the mental
care/treatments and the government funding the running of mental institutions. Not only does
suicide affect society but society affects suicide greatly. The factors that lead to suicide are
caused greatly by the pressure put on humans to survive in this world. Socioeconomic factors,
economic factors, social factors, psychological factors, and a whole bunch more give into the
way that leads to suicide.

This picture is of Moe from The Simpsons saying no to killing himself that day because
he has a low self-esteem and is suicidal and possibly suffers from major depressive disorder. He
actually has an annual Christmas tradition of trying to commit suicide but always fails. This is a
positive picture actually because Moe is not going to kill himself or try that day at least. Which
shows that there is hope and he wants to be saved and to be helped. However, like most people
who try to commit suicide or have, Moe is very lonely and finds no point in his life where he has
no girlfriend, family, and a terrible job. These factors such as depression, low self-esteem, and
economic issues all can cause and lead to suicide. He wants help but doesnt know who or where
to get it from.
Also, Moe has showed clear signs of wanting to commit suicide just like four out of five
who attempt suicide. There are about 10- 20 million people who attempt suicide each year and
about 800,00- 1 million people who commit suicide. And of those million who do commit
suicide, 24.8% of them use suffocation, including hangings, as the means. People like Moe

shouldnt become just another statistic in the organizations like CDC and AFSP instead they
should be a statistic of survivors who have overcome it and getting through life fine now. The
death of Moe would affect the whole Simpson society and community. Most of the citizens of
Springfield would miss him, especially his friends like Homer. Everyone close to him or that
knew him would be affected by his death and saddened even the slightest. It wouldnt be the
same without him there and the same goes for any person who commits suicide. They dont
realize it at the moment but theyre death will affect their family and cause great grief.
There are many ways to address this problem and try to fix it gradually. Its not something that
can just be done overnight and the next day its gone. No, this problem will take dedication,
funding, and years of fixing by people who are willing to help save lives and the governments of
the world. It cannot just be a project on a local level but on a national or worldwide level that
will help people of all over and not just the more fortunate ones. There have been research
studies and surveys conducted to find out the best ways to help with this problem. People is
Australia were given optimism education programs to prevent anxiety and depression within the
youth and the findings of the research suggest that AOP-PTS has short and medium term effects
but was not useful in the long term (Johnstone). However, this does not mean that research
should not continue due to one unsuccessful program. More ideas should be made and more
programs should be created and tried. Another research study conducted was for the
effectiveness of behavioral activation for reducing depression against medication with the use of
meta-analysis. The trials showed behavioral analysis to be better than regular medication for
depression (Ekers). This reduce in depression can reduce the suicide rate in by a percentage due
to the strong ties of depression with suicide. Also for people who have psychological disorders,
mental care programs and psychologists and psychiatrists need to be brought into the picture.

People with mental health issues cannot always be blamed for their thinking and actions.
It is normal to some disorders and some disorders can cause irrational thoughts and behaviors.
Clients with psychological disorders find it hard to function in the real world due to their health.
They dont always fit in and sometimes bullying can apply to these situations. People with
psychological disorders think differently, their cognition is different than others who dont have
disorders. Mental care institutes and programs should be instilled to help those who cant help
themselves.
Other things that should be implemented are awareness programs about the suicide
problem, prevention programs, and educational programs for suicide. If more people were more
knowledgeable of the current situation of suicide, then maybe more people would lend a hand to
help in the fight. Most people dont even know how suicide affects people so often. Also
prevention programs that give help to suicide attempters who have survived and give knowledge
to the public about how and why suicide should stopped. Moreover, educational programs should
be given out because people dont know what suicide is, they dont know signs of suicide, how
to prevent it, or how to cope with a loss. People sometimes can have the chance to save someone
from committing suicide but if they dont see the signs or know how to prevent it correctly then
that is a life lost due to our ignorance and obliviousness.

To conclude, suicide is a disease that is spreading all over this world like wildfire. The
world powers must take action to prevent such a tragedy from happening so much. One million
suicides every single year is just way too much, especially for something that can be prevented

just with simple attentive care. Every day the world goes round and round and barely anybody
(compared to the whole population) tries to help out in worldly problems that affect everyone
just like crime or diseases. Suicide is not a low fever that can go away with 2 Advils, no, it needs
to be watched over and taken care of for some few years. Social factors that cause suicide need
to be prevented such as economic issues, relationship issues, bullying, depression, and other
psychological disorders. There are many ways to solve the problem at hand, which are by having
educational programs, prevention programs, awareness programs, and mental care for the
mentally ill. There have been research studies proving the effectiveness of certain methods to
reduce depression symptoms and trials to decrease depression and suicide with the use of
educational programs. Sometimes they dont work but it doesnt mean they are busts. They just
need to be given more time and research and funding, only then we can find a cure to the silent
epidemic. Suicide rates need to go down all across the world and not just in the countries that
are wealthier and can afford to fix the problem. The whole world must be helped, it is our duty as
human beings to help the ones on need and the ones that cant help themselves; it is what makes
us human.

Jiang, Yi-Sheng, and Ming Chang Tsai. The Correlation between Socioeconomic Factors and
the Suicide Rate. International Journal of Intelligent Technologies and Applied
Statistics 6.4 (2013): 415-430. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Johnstone, Julie, Rosanna M. Rooney, Shari Hassan and Robert T. Kane. Prevention of
depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents: 42 and 54 months follow-up of the
Aussie Optimism Program-Positive Thinking Skills. Original Research Article 5 (2014):
1-9. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2014
Ekers, David, Lisa Webster, Annemieke Van Straten, Pim Cuijpers, David Richards and Simon
Gilbody. Behavioural Activation for Depression; An Update of Meta-Analysis of
Effectiveness and Sub Group Analysis. Public Library of Science 9.6 (2014): 1-11.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Oct. 2014
Anderson, Scott. The Urge to End It All. The New York Times 6 Jul. 2008. Print.
Pena, Juan B., Monica M. Matthieu, Luis H. Zayas, Katherine E. Masyn and Eric D. Caine. Cooccurring risk behaviors among White, Black, and Hispanic US high school adolescents
with suicide attempts requiring medical attention, 19992007: Implications for future
prevention initiatives. Soc Psychiat Epidimiol (2010). Academic Search Complete. Web.
2 Nov. 2014