Current State of Affairs

           The world today is full of problems that often times are presented far worse than they really are. There are problems thousands of miles from ones position in the world and others that are as close as the room next door. Family problems are huge issues in many households, they affect the young, tender souls more than they affect the adults in the situation. Some problems are as simple as oppression for what the family will watch on television to the dramatic problems like divorce. These problems affect the younger kin since they don't know how to process the drama and don't realize the true intensity of every battle or struggle in a family. The responsibility and stress of maintaining a family is not on their shoulders. Now there are large amounts of teenagers consuming drugs, alcohol, smoking tobacco, and doing other things which they think help them escape reality, the realities they are facing at home. Others circumnavigate the problems completely and use suicide as their only escape route.
              For every problem there is at least one solution there are many times in which solutions come from every direction. Teenagers are not the best problem solvers and sometimes their only solution is suicide. Teenage suicide is influenced greatly by problems at home, school or anywhere else that brings stress upon their shoulders. In the article "The Third Leading Cause of Death Amongst Teenagers: Suicide," it states the following;
          Among many things, some suicidal youths experience family trouble, which leads them, to                    
          doubt their self-worth and make them feel unwanted, superfluous, and misunderstood. According to
          one study, 90 percent of suicidal teenagers believed their families did not understand them. Young     
          people reported that when they tried to tell their parents about their feelings of unhappiness or failure,
          their mother and father denied or ignored their point of view.
The guilt of being responsible of everything that happens at home is what provokes them to think the way they do, to act in such deleterious manner. Being misunderstood, like many people say, hurts. In some cases it hurts not only the central person in the conflict but the people that have the close ties around them. Parents find themselves making their children feel guilty of things to make them change something they do wrong and correct this. It might be useful but it changes the teenagers character abruptly causing their stress levels to rise and their thoughts to explode in suicide or attempt in suicide.
           Domestic violence at home is another cause for troubled teens. In the article, "Effects of Domestic Violence in Teens," it estimate that around 7 to 14 million children are witnessing domestic violence and are then caught up in the effects. It doesn't only say that, it also states that many of the children who witness it at home feel guilty and live fearing for the worst. This fear secludes them from the rest of the world and has their mind set on the problems they feel involved in daily. They fear for their safety, well being of themselves and the rest of the family. They wait around expecting the worse out of every situation while blaming themselves all at once. They try to pamper and tame raging giant in their heads, the thoughts of guilt, by creating a gateway. The gateway is many times alcohol use, the use of illicit drugs or other controlling substances, the most tragic gateway is the gateway to eternal sleep, suicide. Although they can find this by consuming the alcohol or drugs, it's not often intentional to overdose on them, they do it to subjugate their thoughts and fears and circumnavigate the problem.
             The teenage life is to live experiences, fail and succeed but other times it only feels like failure. Someones home environment isn't always so pleasant. It's sometimes feared like a toddler fears the dentist or the fear of a lost child. Teenagers might act tough on the outside but deep down their as delicate as a new born child, only trying to survive and cooperate with the world. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for troubled teens and continues to be used as the escape to everything. Not all problems can be avoided, especially when they're at home.

"Effects of domestic violence on children - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_domestic_violence_on_children>.

"The third leading cause of death amongst teenagers: Suicide." Serendip Home | Serendip's Exchange. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f03/web3/r2kallon.html>.