Suicides Among American Adolescents

Suicides Among American Adolescents

My son committed suicide at the age of 21, following an altercation with his allegedly cheating girlfriend. With the gun blast that took his life, the life of his loved-ones was also blown apart. He had much to live for: he was a brilliant and gifted artist and deep thinker, a handsome man with brains. It's been many years since his premature death. Although it has become easier to speak of the loss, and of the healing, emotion still gets caught in my throat, even here now, as I attempt to write about the experience of surviving suicide.

With loss comes, hopefully, acceptance, and eventually, personal growth. Having spent weeks lying on the floor, sobbing, not washing, not eating, consciously deciding whether or not to follow my son into the unknown abyss of death, I finally got up, went to my keyboard and began to write. As a possessed madwoman, I wrote through days and nights, and through the pain and confusion of losing a child. I thought, and I wrote. I purged. The result was, Blessings In The Mire, an extremely candid book about the miracles and signs that both preceded and followed my son's death. Writing the book saved my life, and now that it is published, it is also healing others.

Eventually, the book, Blessings In The Mire, evolved into a website by the same name (www.BlessingsInTheMire.com). Visitors may now post tributes to loved-ones who have committed suicide. Some write poetry, others write a line or two about the deceased, or about their feelings towards their loss. It's a new (FREE!) service that seems to be catching on quite rapidly.

The evolving website also includes a monthly e-zine that keeps folks hooked into a sort of community. It's all a fresh beginning, and still blossoming, and is also a free service.

On the Blessings In The Mire website, several informational articles are available for download, as are flyers that can be posted around campuses and coffee houses, or wherever anyone can think of to hang them. It's a great way to get the word out, to raise awareness of an issue that the bulk of the masses like to pretend is non-existent.

Suicide is the #3 cause of death in adolescents ages 15-24. It is the #5 cause of death in children ages 5-14. Can we, as a society, really live with these horrific statistics? It seems that suicide is at crisis levels, and few are talking about the truth. Every 16 minutes another suicide takes place. If you are still reading this, please, take a moment to pass this information on to anyone with children, to those in the media, to your legislators and clergy.

What began as a mother's anguish, evolved into a book, then blossomed into a website, and has now become a non-profit corporation dedicated to the prevention adolescent suicide. Raise your voices together with ours at Blessings In The Mire, Inc. Challenge the schools, the media, friends, family, and the government to actively support suicide awareness and prevention. Write letters to the editors of newspapers. Call radio talk shows, and news stations. Talk with youth at every opportunity. And listen to what they have to say. Your personal attention just may save a life.

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http://www.suicidehotlines.com/ assistance for locating local suicide prevention.

http://www.blessingsinthemire.com/ for survivor support, awareness and prevention.

http://www.reachingyouthartnetwork.org/ for aRt programs and contests that support awareness and prevention of suicide.