BloodiedButUnbowed
Well-Known Member
Do not let the incident pass.
Do not write it off to "hormones" or "moodiness."
Do not allow your child to minimize their statements.
Do not minimize it yourself.
My family is living proof that much more damage will be done by underreacting than overreacting.
I'm doing a lot of reflecting in the aftermath of my YS' almost-successful suicide attempt that has left him brain damaged, without functioning kidneys and a nearly amputated right leg.
In late February, I posted here that he made a suicidal statement at school. His parents took him to the closest psychiatric hospital for an intake.
He admitted he had a plan to take his life. He did not want to discuss it. He was not pushed to discuss it. He said he "didn't want to talk about it." Nobody made him.
Neither we, nor the hospital staff, took this gesture seriously enough. He minimized the whole thing, and we failed to take it seriously enough, given that he was not our Difficult Child and his older brother was dominating everybody's thoughts and concerns, as he usually did back then.
He went to outpatient therapy twice weekly. Things seemed to normalize. He was our Normal Child and so we forgot all about it.
Six months later he took 50 tablets of prescription cardiac medication, belonging to his Dad. And he died.
But he was in a top pediatric intensive care unit, and they gave him his life back. Were it not for the fact that he was already in this hospital and CPR was begun immediately I would be writing about his funeral.
We are grateful.
But he has brain damage, kidney failure, and has lost the use of his right leg for the time being.
Please do not be us.
Do not take it lightly.
Do not write it off to "hormones" or "moodiness."
Do not allow your child to minimize their statements.
Do not minimize it yourself.
My family is living proof that much more damage will be done by underreacting than overreacting.
I'm doing a lot of reflecting in the aftermath of my YS' almost-successful suicide attempt that has left him brain damaged, without functioning kidneys and a nearly amputated right leg.
In late February, I posted here that he made a suicidal statement at school. His parents took him to the closest psychiatric hospital for an intake.
He admitted he had a plan to take his life. He did not want to discuss it. He was not pushed to discuss it. He said he "didn't want to talk about it." Nobody made him.
Neither we, nor the hospital staff, took this gesture seriously enough. He minimized the whole thing, and we failed to take it seriously enough, given that he was not our Difficult Child and his older brother was dominating everybody's thoughts and concerns, as he usually did back then.
He went to outpatient therapy twice weekly. Things seemed to normalize. He was our Normal Child and so we forgot all about it.
Six months later he took 50 tablets of prescription cardiac medication, belonging to his Dad. And he died.
But he was in a top pediatric intensive care unit, and they gave him his life back. Were it not for the fact that he was already in this hospital and CPR was begun immediately I would be writing about his funeral.
We are grateful.
But he has brain damage, kidney failure, and has lost the use of his right leg for the time being.
Please do not be us.
Do not take it lightly.