Asian teens are not growing up fast enough

More Singaporeans die from suicide than from accidents
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : More Singaporeans die committing suicide than from traffic accidents.

This is according to statistics revealed at the 2nd Asia Pacific Suicide Prevention Conference which bring together experts from around the region.

An average of one Singaporean dies from committing suicide every day.

Even then, Singapore's suicide rates are one of the lowest in Asia.

But what is getting authorities worried is a rising trend of youths committing suicide.

Suicide rates among the elderly, on the other hand, have dropped significantly.

Dr Chia Boon Hock, Psychologist and Suicide Researcher, said: "The older people now are much better off. They have their HDB flats, CPF, they are married, not single, previously you had a old cohort where the elderly are single immigrants. For young suicide.. the level is steady, it is high."

Suicide is the second main cause of death among girls under 20 and the third among boys of that age.

Studies show that women are more likely to attempt suicide then men and in Singapore, most of the female teenagers who kill themselves do so because of relationship problems as well as study stress.

At the same time, psychologists also say that those who are single and unemployed are more likely to attempt suicide.

Between the year 2000 and 2004, the number of unemployed males killing themselves were 17 times higher than their employed counterparts.

The Health Ministry says what is important is that front-line staff like family doctors know how to identify signs that someone has suicidal tendencies.

Dr Alex Su, Head of Emergency Services at the Institute of Mental Health, said: "In Singapore, more than 50 percent of the people, if they were to end their lives, they would have left some form of message before that but unfortunately these messages were being ignored or not taken seriously.

"They may have made some arrangements to give away things that they had, or made some arrangements, as in after their death who will get what things, sometimes they may even release their pets.

"More importantly, they will leave some kind of suicide notes and these are very important things to note and should be taken seriously."

The Institute of Mental Health is currently running courses for family doctors to help them manage mental and suicidal conditions.

But psychologists say what is needed is a national suicide prevention strategy.

Dr Su said: "Depression is very treatable, you do not have to wait until depression evolves into a severe state, and all things around you have fallen apart, leading up to suicide.

Singapore has also launched a new website offering information and support from qualified professions for people who are depressed.

http://www.DepNet.sg is a way for people to discreetly seek help and advice for their problems. - CNA/de


I have a theory of why asian teens are more likely to kill themselves is because of their delayed maturity. Teens in asia do not grow up and see the world quickly enough than their western counterparts but are always kept pampered and overly sheltered by their well-to-do parents and their overly-abused sense of stability in their wealthy countries that brings about indifference to matters that they feel are only on a need-to-know basis.

Asian teens are too caught up and imprisoned with their obsolete old-fashion education system that overly focuses on textbook memorisations, that fails to help them develop a good thinking spirit.

Teens in asia also overly indulge themselves too much on the rich material lifestyle, in fashion, food and over-usage of technology for minor day-to-day operations.

They focus too much on small talk and gossips and fail to realise of the bigger, more relevant and crucial world outside their limited scope. But we always hear them complaining about boredom. They are too busy copying and keeping up to what other teens and immatue adults are doing, following branded fashion, latest handphone technology, music concerts, nice places to dine and dress style, along with many of the fashionable teen lifestyle concepts, being a total slave to consumerism. They are overly indulging in past-time activities that becomes a large part of their full-time activities.

The things that most asian teens talk about revolves mainly around their family, their friends, school and local interests even though some of them do travel around alot. But their focus and field of scope is still very much limited to a few topic areas.

Therefore teens would not have much preparations to discuss, learn and gain experience in the real adult world but are kept extendedly in childhood mode even when they are about to leave teenhood. Therefore many of them are not sufficiently equipped with a good adaptive system of thought to deal with many of adult life's sudden and stressful predicaments.

They prematurely introduce themselves to complicated matters of adulthood such as engaging in adult relationships yet many of them fail to adapt properly to maintain and deal with the problems that come with them. One of their ways to resolve their adult problems would then be to commit suicide, their easy way out.

Asian teens should stop playing around and start growing up, otherwise they will not be able survive mentally in the future generation.