Lorain County saw a rise over the past several years in hospitalizations for self-harm or suicidal thoughts among teenagers, and a rise in suicides among individuals in their 20s, according to the county's 2025 Community Health Assessment .

Teenage girls 15 to 19 years old had the highest rates of emergency department visits for self-harm and suicidal thoughts, with more than 260 visits for every 10,000 people in 2024.

One of the central reasons for rising rates of self-harm may be teenage girls' heavy use of social media, said Mitch Dandurand, Lorain County Public Health's epidemiology supervisor.

"They use ... TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, which are very visual platforms," he said. "And that's where you get exposure to the body imaging and perfectionism. And that kind of has a clo

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