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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is all very complicated and I think parents look to what they think is "the" cause to reassure themselves it won't happen to their child.  But the children of great, supportive, involved parents commit suicide.  Its complicate.  Some thoughts:

1. There have always been people in this age range with serious mental illness.  I do think its worse now as the atmosphere to achieve, achieve, achieve has been cranked up. But ultimately there will always be some young adults who struggle with this.

2. IMO UPenn has a particularly strong competitive atmosphere and a coldness.  My DC chose not to apply for that reason.  The reputation is that it is full of "ore-professional" students, students gunning for law or medical school and most especially business.  There's nothing wrong with any of those things, I went to law school, but the sheer concentration is unhealthy.

3. No one has commented on the transition to college athletics but I think that is a big part of it.  I was a high school athlete who loved my sport.  My teammates were like my sisters and I was never happier than when we were out there together, competing.  I was heavily recruited by colleges, including UPenn (I went elsewhere).  [b]When I got to college I found the atmosphere around sports to be much different.  More was expected of me.  the team was cliquish and I had difficulty finding friends.  The level of competition was higher but also less fun.  I went from LOVING my sport to hating it[/b] and quit after one year. In retrospect, it was the best decision I could make, though it was difficult.  Its really hard to change course when you've been recruited. For the woman in this article, she was so invested and I can imagine that the change was particularly hard felt.

4. Finally a lot of schools create disincentives for students seeking help.  They kick them out of school if they are suicidal. I don't know about UPenn's approach, but the student may have felt she couldn't be completely honest with them.[/quote]

The sport angle is interesting. also, it looks like she preferred soccer to track and would have played soccer at Lehigh.[/quote]

Interesting.  Was this at a DI, DII, or DIII school?  Do you think that part matters?  Did any of your HS friends who went on to play college sports experience the same things you did?[/quote]

It was an ivy, which matters only because I didn't have a scholarship and could walk away.  My friends who played at college did not experience the same things. They were also not recruited to the extent I was. It may have been the dynamic with the teammates.  I just didn't click with mine, so it was an enormous amount of time (a big difference with college sports is the time commitment.  The girl who committed suicide was suddenly subject to twice a day practice, for example) spent away from the real friends I was making. College games meant long bus rides, while in high school games were rarely far away. (This was before the days of travel teams). I felt like the whole thing was taking me away from college just when I got there.[/quote]

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