Sad Thoughts Completed suicide is rare in adolescence, but serious thoughts about killing oneself are frequent. Depression and parasuicide are more common in girls than in boys, but rates are high even in boys. There are three reasons to suspect the rates for boys are underestimates: Boys tend to be less willing to divulge their emotions, boys consider it unmanly to try but fail to kill themselves, and completed suicide is higher in males than in females.