Night Falls Fast

            After reading Night Falls Fast, by Kay Redfield Jamison, I realize that suicide is a reality for many people today. What has surprised me the most is that suicide is most serious with college and high school students. If fact, it is the third leading cause of death in young people and has tripled over the last forty-five years (Jamison 21). This has such an impact on me because I am a student and it is frightening to me that I may actually know someone dealing with this problem. Fortunately, after reading Jamison's book, I think I am further educated in the different areas of suicide. Each thought that was discussed in the book was broken down, and at the end of her chapters were essays of real people that dealt with the topic of the section.
             The first issue explained in Jamison's book was why people decide to commit suicide in the first place. In my mind the most significant reply explained by Jamison was depression. So many people fall into this state of mind because of broken or difficult relationships, financial problems and for college students, the feeling of failure and loss (Jamison 299). When teenagers graduate from high school, their lives do a complete turn. They move away from home and are given freedom that they have never had before. It is the student's decision to either fail or succeed. It all is a lot to swallow at one time. Another big part of Jamison's reason for people's decision to commit suicide is mental illness. Disorders like schizophrenia, manic-depression and psychosis are all problems that take over people's minds and no longer let people think normally (Jamison 200). A very heartbreaking and unfortunate example was given in the book about a young guy in the Air Force Academy. He had everything going for him and eventually lost his life due to a mental illness that developed while in the Academy. His mind just snapped and he lost all means of reality.