2005-06-08 5:26 p.m.
Teen Suicide
Last night I watched a special about teen suicide. I watched it for a couple of reasons. My father's death was a suicide and a friend of my daughter's has attempted. I wondered what they were going to discuss.
The first woman's daughter committed suicide. It sounded like it was a quick decission as a result of life plans that were not going to come to be. She wanted to go to West Point, but her SAT scores and grades were not good enough and then she was caught with wrapping papers (she belonged to some sort of military program) and she was going to be kicked out.
The other woman had a son who had suffered from depression for awhile. He and his on again off again on again girl friend had a fight and broke up and he hung himself outside of her window. The angry suicide, the one meant to hurt someone else as if it wouldn't have hurt anyone.
When I was younger I heard that people who committed suicide went to hell. My father was such a nice person I found that hard to believe. I don't know what to think of religion anymore. I truly didn't understand how God could let a good person like my father die.
You know what though? I do wonder about the hell thing. I have a hard time thinking about my father or talking about him. I some times wonder if hell is how you are remembered. How your mememory gets past down. I remember my grandmother fondly. I remember the time she spent with us, her wonderful baking, how she taught me to sew. It's hard to think of Dad without tears even though he was a kind, gentle man with a good sense of humor.
Oh, and then there was a caller who's daughter died last year. She would have graduated this year. The school wouldn't even put her picture in the year book. What's up with that? Yes it's a hard death to come to terms with, but depression is a sickness. A sickness like cancer. We need to find a way to cure it and it's not be not talking about it or hiding it's victims.
They want more teenage education, but how? Seeing the signs and doing what?
There were signs with my father that we saw only in hind sight. We could have run him to a doctor but he had to want to go, he had to want to do something about it. My mother has the same symtoms and she doesn't like the doctors. She doesn't want to do anything about it. She doesn't like to take pills, so where do you go from there. She also thinks her depression started when Dad died and it didn't so she doesn't even get into the issues that really cause her depression.
How does one make it so suicide is not a choice one could make? And there are always exceptions. For example: people who are terminally ill.
No answers here, only more questions.
American Association Of Suicidology: www.suicidology.org
American Foundation For Suicide Prevention: www.afsp.org
Parents Of Suicide: www.parentsofsuicide.com
SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices Of Education): www.save.org