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Kaylee Noyes

Mrs. Mary Martin

Critical Discourse

30 November 2017

How does Age Sway Views on Body Image, Depression and Suicide?

Recently, in many different countries the suicide rate has increased across the board. But

how has the increased amount of suicides presented a problem in different age groups? I

remember in middle school suicide was very notorious across the newly-found social media

apps. In 2012 suicide was the second leading cause of death in adolescents ages 12 to 19 years

(Christopher Johnson. Why Are Suicide Rates Rising? Medpage Today). In the cases that I

remember, teenagers were struggling with an increased amount of bullying, self-hatred, and

other circumstances. But since 2012, theres been changes in the statistics of which age group is

struggling the most with suicide.

In 2015, although suicide was the second leading cause of death by 15-24 year olds with

5,491 suicides, in ages 45-54 suicide was placed at the 5th leading cause of death with a

whopping 8,751 deaths, according to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. Still, 3 years later

suicide is a very high amount of deaths in the 15-24 year old range. But the real concern of these

new found statistics in 2015, is the amount of suicides [8,751] by 45-54 year olds. Why is it that

middle age people are committing suicide almost 2 times more than almost every other age

range? There is no clear answer to this question, just different stories and outcomes. Steve

Anderson told US News, "I was depressed pretty much my whole younger life, and I carried it

into adulthood," Anderson says. "I didn't realize I was a depressed person; I always thought I was
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different than everybody." His Introduction to alcohol around age 16 "really changed things,"

Anderson recalls. For a while, he felt "invincible." [...] It just came to a point with depression,

alcoholism and no self-esteem or self-worth, and I just cracked," he says. "And I said, 'I can't do

this anymore,' and all I came up with [was] I needed relief from life." (Lisa Esposito, Why

Suicide Keeps Rising for Middle-Aged Men, US News). From his point of view, his life was no

longer worth anything to him, but in other stories you see that some people just can no longer

cope with the stress of life or many other things.

Still, although there are less suicides in age group 15-24, it is still the second leading

cause of death. So many young people are dying by something that couldve been prevented.

There has been a rise in suicides following the increase rates of depression. A recent study in

Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found a nearly 50% increase in

adolescent depression over the past 11 years (Christopher Johnson. Why Are Suicide Rates

Rising? Medpage Today). Depression is a very difficult mental health disorder because

hundreds of people have it and are undiagnosed. More and more teenagers are getting diagnosed

with depression in the past years. The cause of this is unknown besides the fact that social media

presence has increased, and the world continues to get more hateful by the day.

Many teenagers get bullied by others or they hate what they look like and these are a big

cause of depression. I know personally what it can do to a teenager to look in the mirror and hate

everything about yourself; and I know I am just one of the millions of teens with this problem.

If youre an individual who has struggled with poor body image and depression, it can be

difficult to distinguish which came first. The two often seem to have a cozy relationship where

they fuel each other and deplete an individuals inherent strength (Deanna James, Poor Body

Image and Depression, Eating Disorder Hope). Another serious cause of depression and body
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image problems, is societal expectations. How much of our happiness is fueled by societies

validation of our choices? It seems that the younger we are, the more dependent we are on

making choices others will value and praise --perhaps because we havent developed, or dont

yet fully trust, our ability to name or even know what makes us happy (Fagan, Kate. What

Made Maddy Run: the Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen. Little,

Brown and Company, 2017.). Teenagers are more susceptible to societal problems because they

dont yet have the mental capabilities to block it out. Lack of self-love leads to depression which

can lead to suicide, but without social media, how many lives could be saved?

Overall, suicide and depression do not discriminate. It does not matter how old you are,

what you look like, or who you are, you are not out of the running. Anytime, any age, you could

get suicidal thoughts and could turn them into actions. Life is too short to live by societal

standards of what you should look like, think like, or be like and people need to stop and realize

that. Depression is a major problem, and we may never cure everyone of it, but if the world was

a little different, maybe the rates of suicide would go down for all ages.

Works Cited

Fagan, Kate. What Made Maddy Run: the Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American
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Teen. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

MD, Christopher Johnson. Why Are Suicide Rates Rising? Medpage Today, MedpageToday,

13 Apr. 2017, www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/kevinmd/64557.

Poor Body Image and Depression. Eating Disorder Hope,

www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/body-image/poor-body-image-and-depression.

Suicide Statistics AFSP. AFSP, afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/.

Suicide by Age. Suicide by Age | Suicide Prevention Resource Center,

www.sprc.org/scope/age.