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numbering four to five in short periods of time.
Dorothy Lewis, social science analyst at the National Institute of Mental Health, quoted the following national statistics, which indicate a sharp increase in recent years in the rate of adolescent suicide.
In the mid 1950’s 4.1 persons per 100,000 between the ages of 15 and 24 committed suicide. In 1980 the number had jumped to 12.5 per 100,000. With this increase, suicide moved from the fifth ranking cause of death among teens in 1960 to the third ranking cause in 1981.
From ’ '70 to 1978 a total of 39,011 adolescents committed suicide. That figure represented a 41 percent increase from the previous eight years.
But statistics are unfeeling; theymean little to us. We care much more about the one person we may know who seems likely to kill himself than we do about a number like 41,000 between so and so years.
Still, it is hard not to stare at the statistics when^hey reveal a conclusion so bleak as thisi^hile the incidence of adult suicide has remained stable over the past few years, the incidence of adolescent suicide has risen dramatically.
93.8%