Citation: Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas, MD, PhD, MMSc, Daniel J. Reidenberg, PsyD, Benedikt Till, DSc, and Madelyn S. Gould, PhD, MPH. "Increasing Help-Seeking and Referrals for Individuals at Risk for Suicide by Decreasing Stigma." N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Rpt. in 3rd ed. Vol. 47. N.p.: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2014. S235-243. Ser. 2. Clinicalkey. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
This journal is very relevant to my question because it talked a lot about stigma, what is being done for prevention, and if these things are working or not working to decrease suicide rates. The author talks about how suicide prevention advocates are trying to raise public awareness of suicide in efforts to reduce the stigma around the idea of suicide, as well as giving people more resources when dealing with these thoughts. The author argued that although we do need to find a way to reduce the social stigma, it is going to be a very hard task. She believes this because if suicide prevention activists attempt to talk about suicide more, then it will normalize the action making those who have suicidal thoughts feel like its a normal thought and then resulting in teenagers taking their own lives more often. The author also argues that teenage men have the highest suicide rates because they are thought in society that they should not express too much emotion, resulting in them not seeking help when they do indeed need help from a professional. This journal made a lot of interesting points, and her points could also be argued with a different perspective.
This source really challenged my thinking because I did not see the potential of reducing the stigma leading to more suicide cases. This is something that I had not thought of before reading this journal, and it definitely helps me to develop a more in depth opinion about this topic. Something that I agree with in this source is how men are more likely to commit suicide because they do not seek help due to societies pressure it puts on men to always be strong and not show a lot of emotion. Because of this, they are almost ashamed or embarrassed to find help, which is wrong. This has to do with the social stigma, and it also raises another good point: why do teenage boys have a higher suicide rate than women and how does society differentiate suicide between girls and boys?
My My pervious source did not touch on this topic of stigma very much, it talked more about prevention than anything. In my next source I will look for more information about the social stigma and how if reducing that will potentially increase or decrease suicide rates. I know I will be able to find a source that counter argues this authors point that reducing stigma normalizes suicide there fore making suicide more frequent. I would like to gather more information about both sides regarding this topic before I make my own decision as to what I believe is true. As of now, I do see the authors points that she is making and it is reasonable to think that is there were more campaigns about suicide then maybe it would make at risk teens more likely to commit suicide. This source has led me to question if reducing the social stigma around suicide will do more harm than good. This is something that I had not thought about before and I am going to look for another source that can counter argue this idea, or agree, to get a better understanding of this topic. This journal also led me to consider how society reacts towards girls who commit suicide and boys who commit suicide: does one group receive more sympathy than the other? Because boys tend to have a harder time seeking help with a mental illness, I would think that people would be more surprised to hear that a teenage boy committed suicide than a teenage girl because it seems less likely (even though it is more common). There are thoughts and questions I will be considering when continuing my research!
Thi
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