Half of college students contemplate suicide

[CrAz3D]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26272639/

Interesting that there are so many.  I wonder what the root cause is for all of that.  The pressure to succeed?  The social pressure?  Hmm

[Armin]

The survey defined considering suicide as having at least one episode of suicidal thinking at some point. Slightly more than half of students said they fit that category, which is known as suicide ideation. When researchers asked about more serious episodes, 15 percent said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide.

50% of college students having just a passing thought about how easily committing suicide would erase the pressures of life just once in their life, does not surprise me at all. I would lie if I said I didn't have such a passing thought at one moment in my life.

The title is misleading since 'contemplate' refers to 'seriously considering', which only accounts for 15%.

[Sidoh]

The numbers are noticeably higher for graduate students.  Jorge Cham of PhD Comics gave a presentation at my university as a part of his tour titled "The Power of Procrastination".  While the overwhelming majority of the content was intended to be humorous, it did have a few serious points.  One of them was how many graduate students had considered suicide, were depressed, etc.  The numbers were pretty shocking, I remember.

[iago]

The survey defined considering suicide as having at least one episode of suicidal thinking at some point. Slightly more than half of students said they fit that category, which is known as suicide ideation. When researchers asked about more serious episodes, 15 percent said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide.

50% of college students having just a passing thought about how easily committing suicide would erase the pressures of life just once in their life, does not surprise me at all. I would lie if I said I didn't have such a passing thought at one moment in my life.

The title is misleading since 'contemplate' refers to 'seriously considering', which only accounts for 15%.

I was wondering about that. I'd say that if 50% of college students admit to have had a passing thought about it, then the other half are liars. I'd be seriously surprised if there were people who never had thoughts like, "what would happen if I killed myself?" in a totally non-serious, passing way.

(Or maybe I'm just crazy *shrug*)

[Armin]

The survey defined considering suicide as having at least one episode of suicidal thinking at some point. Slightly more than half of students said they fit that category, which is known as suicide ideation. When researchers asked about more serious episodes, 15 percent said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide.

50% of college students having just a passing thought about how easily committing suicide would erase the pressures of life just once in their life, does not surprise me at all. I would lie if I said I didn't have such a passing thought at one moment in my life.

The title is misleading since 'contemplate' refers to 'seriously considering', which only accounts for 15%.

I was wondering about that. I'd say that if 50% of college students admit to have had a passing thought about it, then the other half are liars. I'd be seriously surprised if there were people who never had thoughts like, "what would happen if I killed myself?" in a totally non-serious, passing way.

(Or maybe I'm just crazy *shrug*)

I agree 100%

[Sidoh]

The survey defined considering suicide as having at least one episode of suicidal thinking at some point. Slightly more than half of students said they fit that category, which is known as suicide ideation. When researchers asked about more serious episodes, 15 percent said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide.

50% of college students having just a passing thought about how easily committing suicide would erase the pressures of life just once in their life, does not surprise me at all. I would lie if I said I didn't have such a passing thought at one moment in my life.

The title is misleading since 'contemplate' refers to 'seriously considering', which only accounts for 15%.

I was wondering about that. I'd say that if 50% of college students admit to have had a passing thought about it, then the other half are liars. I'd be seriously surprised if there were people who never had thoughts like, "what would happen if I killed myself?" in a totally non-serious, passing way.

(Or maybe I'm just crazy *shrug*)

I'm guessing they don't mean in a passing way.

[deadly7]

Half of college students contemplate suicide

And the other half hasn't met Crazed (or a person similar to him) yet.

[while1]

I've thought about it more quite a bit in the past year... Hell, I thought about it just 30 minutes ago.  In the end, I realize that I'd only hurt my parents the most and I would have wasted the last 21 years of my life.  Ending my life now is illogical, yet it still doesn't fill and heal the giant void I feel inside.

[Camel]

The survey defined considering suicide as having at least one episode of suicidal thinking at some point. Slightly more than half of students said they fit that category, which is known as suicide ideation. When researchers asked about more serious episodes, 15 percent said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide.

50% of college students having just a passing thought about how easily committing suicide would erase the pressures of life just once in their life, does not surprise me at all. I would lie if I said I didn't have such a passing thought at one moment in my life.

The title is misleading since 'contemplate' refers to 'seriously considering', which only accounts for 15%.

I was wondering about that. I'd say that if 50% of college students admit to have had a passing thought about it, then the other half are liars. I'd be seriously surprised if there were people who never had thoughts like, "what would happen if I killed myself?" in a totally non-serious, passing way.

(Or maybe I'm just crazy *shrug*)

/signed

[iago]

The survey defined considering suicide as having at least one episode of suicidal thinking at some point. Slightly more than half of students said they fit that category, which is known as suicide ideation. When researchers asked about more serious episodes, 15 percent said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide.

50% of college students having just a passing thought about how easily committing suicide would erase the pressures of life just once in their life, does not surprise me at all. I would lie if I said I didn't have such a passing thought at one moment in my life.

The title is misleading since 'contemplate' refers to 'seriously considering', which only accounts for 15%.

I was wondering about that. I'd say that if 50% of college students admit to have had a passing thought about it, then the other half are liars. I'd be seriously surprised if there were people who never had thoughts like, "what would happen if I killed myself?" in a totally non-serious, passing way.

(Or maybe I'm just crazy *shrug*)

I'm guessing they don't mean in a passing way.

Well, that's what I get from:

The survey defined considering suicide as having at least one episode of suicidal thinking at some point.

*shrug*

And the other half hasn't met Crazed (or a person similar to him) yet.

Zing! :P

[Sidoh]

It's still a pretty unclear definition.  Does "suicidal thinking" mean they've pondered the consequences or they were considering it as a viable option, even if lightly?

[iago]

*shrug* who knows?

That's why surveys are awesome, they can be used to prove anything. :)

[Camel]

It's still a pretty unclear definition.  Does "suicidal thinking" mean they've pondered the consequences or they were considering it as a viable option, even if lightly?

It's even less clear than that, IMO. Suicidal thinking could apply to thinking about someone else committing suicide, for example. According to that interpretation, anybody who even knows what the definition of the word suicide is has had "suicidal thoughts." Thereby, the fact that the result was sub-100% shows that the result is meaningless.

[Armin]

15 percent said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide.

5 percent try to kill themselves
More than 5 percent of students said they had actually attempted suicide, which is the second-leading cause of death for college students, compared to its ranking of ninth among the U.S. population at large, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health.

That seems to be the only solid information in the entire article. I believe the 50% statistic was just to draw readers in.

[Sidoh]

It's still a pretty unclear definition.  Does "suicidal thinking" mean they've pondered the consequences or they were considering it as a viable option, even if lightly?

It's even less clear than that, IMO. Suicidal thinking could apply to thinking about someone else committing suicide, for example. According to that interpretation, anybody who even knows what the definition of the word suicide is has had "suicidal thoughts." Thereby, the fact that the result was sub-100% shows that the result is meaningless.

I think it is safe to assume they're referring exclusively to suicidal thoughts involving oneself.  The study would be silly if this was not the case.

15 percent said they had “seriously considered” attempting suicide.

5 percent try to kill themselves
More than 5 percent of students said they had actually attempted suicide, which is the second-leading cause of death for college students, compared to its ranking of ninth among the U.S. population at large, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health.

That seems to be the only solid information in the entire article. I believe the 50% statistic was just to draw readers in.

Yeah, totally agreed.  That second statistic is the most believable (and surprising).  The metric is clearly defined and their measurements are contrasted against a different population.