Reply to When the school tells you your kid is at risk for suicide

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I had the same experience only with my son. New school, call from the guidance counselor, denied that he would kill himself or had a plan and then he tried. I spent a year not knowing if he would be alive when I got home. I had to check the house before I got the other kids out of the car. May have been the worst year ever. Counselor didn't help because he wouldn't talk. Things got better after I made major changes in his life - different school program, lots of structure, volunteer work instead of being home, etc. Good luck.

Also I am a social worker who worked with families of kids who committed suicide. Things I can tell you are these. No one can imagine their child trying to kill themselves and they never see it coming. It's always a shock.[b] And suicide doesn't happen when things are the worst. It happens when things are on the upswing g. At that point people have the energy to plan and they can't fathom ever going back to the dark place they came from. [/b]

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NP. Thank you for this post. This is a very important point - quite chilling, actually - but thank you for pointing it out.[/quote]

It is also not true. Sometimes people kill themselves on the upswing but sometimes (especially in teens) the trigger that leads from contemplation and ideation to the attempt / completion is humiliation / embarrassment / rejection / sense of worthlessness / hopelessness and they are at what they see as their worst with no way out when they act on it. 
Suicide doesn't take a lot of in the moment planning. There may have been planning in the past (they hoarded pills) or they act impulsively or while under the influence and use what they can access now.

I worked with over 2000 suicidal teens in a previous job, many post attempt. There is no one pathway or set of risk factors.

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Yes, to the emphasis on impulsivity. A suicide of someone I know was 100% impulsive, zero planning. She got caught doing something fraudulent and committed suicide that day. Young people have a very hard time seeing past immediate consequences and embarrassment and cannot fathom that there is a life beyond the now. [/quote]

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