dying young - Jezebel

posts about #dyingyoung more →
Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
Death Becomes Her

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

sybann
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
The drugs, drinking and sleeping around (like one of the guys) was a way of proving I was as badass and an equal to the men in my profession - but who wants to be equal to a jackass?
Reply

sybann was starred sybann was unstarred

♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
i can attest to this. i've never done any drugs, but i engaged in some otherwise risky behaviors as a teenager. now, that i'm a great sage on the mountaintop at 22, i realize i'm EXTREMELY lucky and blessed to have avoided pregnancy, disease, and so many other ill-fates that could have befallen me.

and i still think i'm not going to make it to 40... but the polarity between my behavior and personality then and now couldn't be any more stark. i'm pretty boring these days.

so yea. SCIENCE is on to something.
Reply

PaintedTrollop
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
This is hardly a newsflash. There have always been kids who said stuff like this.

I was one of 'em. I engaged in all kinds of risky behaviors - unprotected sex, booze, drugs (including IV drug use) - it's a wonder I am here today at 53. Some of them will live to be old, too - and, like me, they'll realize that dying young wasn't such a good retirement plan.
Reply

PaintedTrollop was starred PaintedTrollop was unstarred

margareita metermaid
06/29/09

@PaintedTrollop: Ha, I did all that stuff too, but I had parents/relatives who lived those kinds of lives and were pretty resilient, so i always figured i would be, too. even tho i didn't necessarily want to be.
Reply

PaintedTrollop
06/29/09

@margareita metermaid: At 53 I can see that quitting school at 16 to become a drug dealer wasn't, perhaps, the best career plan.
Reply

PaintedTrollop was starred PaintedTrollop was unstarred

applejuice
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
A kid I went to grade school, jr high and high school with was a real bad-ass and always said he wasn't going to live to be an old man. One day not long before school was out he took his dad's gun outside to play russian roulette with his friends. He lost. Shot himself in the head right there in front of his parents' house.
Reply

applejuice was starred applejuice was unstarred

alouette
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
Maybe they're saying they'll die young because of their bad behavior. As in, they are aware of cause-and-effect?
Reply

alouette was starred alouette was unstarred

Rare Affinity
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
For some reason, I always assumed I would die at the age of 33. That was MANY years ago. Last night a woman on UK television felt she had hit her physical peak and life from now would all be downhill. All this at the age of 20! They say the rates of STIs have increased dramatically in the over 40s. Risky behaviour and a general sense of depression have never been the preserve of the young.
Reply

Rare Affinity was starred Rare Affinity was unstarred

Schm
06/29/09

@Rare Affinity: I always was convinced I'd never make it past 24, for some reason. Now that I'm approaching my 25th birthday and would very much like to keep living, I still think about it sometimes and it worries me. Like, as if I've doomed myself to that fate or something.
Reply

Schm was starred Schm was unstarred

LaComtesse
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
If you think you're going to die young, you probably are either depressed or have been taught to think you're not worthy of life. It doesn't shock me that these are the kids doing drugs and engaging in risky behaviors.
Reply

LaComtesse was starred LaComtesse was unstarred

kaiwhakamarie
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
I had a lot of friends who felt/talked the same way when I was a teenager. I remember the big quote that all my friends had on their backpack in sharpie was 'Better to burn out than to fade away'. Of course they all attributed it to Kurt Cobain (apparently I was the only teenager in my HS who was aware of Neil Young). I never really went through that phase but I think a good majority of teenagers do. You're tired of being misunderstood, you feel trapped between adulthood and childhood, and all the pressures that seem to be dumped on you all at once. Plus it's 'cool' to be jaded and suicidal, apparently.
Reply

kaiwhakamarie was starred kaiwhakamarie was unstarred

MissyMcCLung
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
I remember a surprising number of kids in high school thinking that they wouldn't, and didn't want to, live to see 40. They felt that was SO old, and the adults in their life all seemed so unhappy.
Reply

MissyMcCLung was starred MissyMcCLung was unstarred

curiousgeorgiana
06/29/09

In reply to Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young
"Those who were already fighting, using drugs, having unsafe sex, or who had attempted suicide were more likely to say in later interviews that they'd die young."

This confuses me. If they are using drugs already, or have already attempted suicide, wouldn't they be more likely to guess that they will die young?
Reply

curiousgeorgiana was starred curiousgeorgiana was unstarred

♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
06/29/09

@curiousgeorgiana: i thought that too, but they qualify their assertions by saying the reverse was also true:

" Teens who hadn't engaged in such behaviors but said they would die young in the first interview were more likely to have started by the second and third interviews."

so there seems to be correlation and causality.
Reply

krismry
05/15/09

In reply to Death Becomes Her
Whatever happened to that nice feature where if you click on someone's avatar picture on their activity page it would open a little box with the av pic showing up larger? Can we have that back? Because I definitely want my palomino horse here to be the pic of me, but you can't see the writing above him, this was a postcard from socorro new mexico where they found the crashed ufo? and the writing is from a motel and the name of the motel on this postcard is, in all caps, WESTWARD HO. Damn I want mine to say that!!!1!!!
Reply

krismry was starred krismry was unstarred

Ultraprison!
05/14/09

In reply to Death Becomes Her
I distinctly remember my grandma' best friend telling me that her & her husband were going that weekend to have their "obituary photos" taken. She said she wanted to make sure they were nice ones.

I think most people, at least ones who die in their old age, choose an obit photo ahead of time. I have no problem with wanting my last appearance in a newspaper to be a good one.
Reply

Ultraprison! was starred Ultraprison! was unstarred

hydrogen_jukebox
05/14/09

In reply to Death Becomes Her
What if I just use my avatar? That should work, right?
Reply

hydrogen_jukebox was starred hydrogen_jukebox was unstarred

saintbernadette
05/14/09

@hydrogen_jukebox: Yep. Just stick a picture of a baby hippo up when I die, please.
Reply

saintbernadette was starred saintbernadette was unstarred

Mrs. Stephen Fry
05/14/09

In reply to Death Becomes Her
My favorite epitaph is Clement Freud's request: "Best before 15 April 2009."

That, of course, is the day he died.
Reply

Mrs. Stephen Fry was starred Mrs. Stephen Fry was unstarred

hatepaperdoll
05/14/09

In reply to Death Becomes Her
This is the one I'm going to use:

Reply

hatepaperdoll was starred hatepaperdoll was unstarred

DangerMouse
05/14/09

@hatepaperdoll: Classy.
Reply

DangerMouse was starred DangerMouse was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#dyingyoung

Jezebel

SUBSCRIBE TO Jezebel

Risky Behavior More Likely In Teens Who Believe They'll Die Young

Death Becomes Her

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment