SPEAKER: MOST TEEN SUICIDES PREVENTABLE

Many teen suicides are preventable, but only if people see the warning signs and understand the way teens view the world, said a Harvard psychologist who spoke on the subject Monday in Cape Girardeau.

Pamela Cantor, a Boston psychologist in private practice who is associated with the Center for Study of Suicide at Harvard University, said suicidal teens have "tunnel vision" and often view temporary problems as permanent and devastating.

"They see things in black and white and often feel helpless," she said, but added, "Very few young people want to die. Most want to be rescued."

Cantor is president of the National Committee on Youth Suicide Prevention. She will be conducting a seminar for mental health professionals today at Southeast Missouri State University.

She said studies on the subject of teen suicide have produced varied findings, but most teens who kill themselves are not mentally ill. In most cases, problems in school, family and relationships seem to culminate all at once.

In a depressed teen, this can lead to thoughts of death as a way out, she said. "What a suicidal adolescent often wants is someone to take charge of their life," she said.

Most teens who contemplate suicide send out warning signs, she said. They can include loss of interest in once-favorite activities, use of drugs or alcohol, risky sexual behavior, eating disorders, giving away prized possessions, isolation, or, the most serious, a suicide attempt, she said.

"Sometimes a suicide attempt is seen as a way of manipulation to get attention," she said. "But if a person has to go to those lengths to get attention, we better pay attention."

Suicide in teens is often impulsive, Cantor said, because teens don't have the life experience to know that things will change and get better.

Since 1960, the suicide rate among teens age 15 to 19 has continued to rise, Cantor said. More than 5,000 teens kill themselves each year in the United States, an average of one every 90 minutes. A suicide attempt one that does not result in death takes place every minute, she said.

Statistics show 65 percent of teens who kill themselves use guns, a fact that is overwhelming, Cantor said.

"The next highest percentage is (drug) overdose with 11 percent," she said. "If we can limit access to guns, we think we can lower the suicide rate."

More males use weapons such as guns to commit suicide, she said, which leads to the fact that more male suicide attempts result in death. Nine out of 10 suicide attempts that don't result in death are made by women, she said.

Apathy toward fictionalized violence is also a factor in teen suicide, she said. By the time most kids have graduated from high school, they have watched 15,000 televised murders.

And violence in movies and television has increased in severity, she said.

"We are numb to this. (Movies) have to get more and more violent in order to get our attention translate that our money," she said.

It also can influence susceptible teens to deal with problems using violence instead of "talking things out," she said.

Cantor was a member of the Presidential Task Force on Youth Suicide Prevention and is a syndicated columnist on mental health issues concerning children, adolescents and parenting.

Monday's lecture, held at St. Vincent's School, and today's seminar are sponsored by the Mental Health Association in Cape Girardeau County, the Community Counseling Center, Community Caring Council and the Social Work Club at Southeast Missouri State.