Take Teen Suicide Seriously
As a parent, you must stay involved in your teens life. It is important to be interested in their school activities home and social life. Life is precious and it must thrive within a family setting or it will surely die because of a lack of communication and most of all love. This is especially important if the family unit is breaking up because of divorce. Often your teenager whom you assume will be fine and able to cope with what's happening, cannot.
It is very important to take teen suicide seriously. Perhaps your teen is pressured to get good grades or high tests scores. Maybe both of you as parents are having financially difficultly so your child feels if they were out of the picture, things would be better for everyone, and the teen would be less of a burden.
The greatest reason why a teenager might commit suicide is lack of understanding, they feel they are not heard or understood.
Have you noticed a change in your teenager?
Is they personality different?
Have they become withdrawn from social activties that they once loved?
Do they stay in their room most of the time? Only barely comming out for a meal?
Have their grades slipped? Do they seem not interested in school?
Has your teen run away from home?
Is your teen complaining of not feeling good?
Have you caught them or do you suspect they are using drugs or alcohol?
Has you teen lost a lot of weight recently?
What about their sleeping or eating habits, have they changed?
Have you gone into their room and looked for journals, writing, poems they may be on the dark side, or that talk about death?
Is your teenager joking about suicide? Or have they said in passing "I just can't take it anymore"?
Do you have weapons in your home or medications that could be life threatening?
When is the last time you really spent some quality time with your teenager? If you can't rememeber, then now is a good time to start. If you suspect or have that feeling deep in your gut that something isn't right , seek professional help. Talk to your child's teachers and find out what's going on. Don't abruptly confront your teenager, but talk to them as you wish you would like to be spoken too. There are a number of teen out patient and in-patient based programs they can help you in this process of getting your child's life back on track.
Please contact the National Suicide Hotline for additional assistance at 1-800-784-2433
Local crisis hotline numbers can be found in the front of your local phone book, on your state's family help page, or call 911 for emergency help.
Susan Murphy Milano is the author of "Moving Out. Moving On" when a relationship goes wrong and "Defending Our Lives" getting away from domestic violence & staying safe. www.movingoutmovingon.com/bookinfo.html
