Talking About Mental Health With Your Family

 TALKING ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH WITH YOUR FAMILY

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-24. For suicide to be the second leading cause of death and knowing their is something that can be done about it is upsetting. It is a preventable cause of death and we aren't doing anything about it. Nearly 3/4 of parents do not realize that their child is having suicidal thoughts. This statistics affects me greatly as someone in my family was suicidal and no one knew until it was too late. There were so many signs that should've been noticed from the very beginning but we all dismissed them as they were having a bad few days. Well the bad few days turned into months and one thing led to another and we all got a horrific call that no one every wants to receive. 

One thing to start doing is making it more of an open topic and realizing its okay to express how you feel. As a young kid it may be hard to express these feelings as no one else is seeming to express these negative feelings. As parents of a family, I believe the best way is to openly talk about it with your kids, even at a young age to let them know that they aren't alone, since that is one of the most common factors in why kids don't say anything. Though it may be an awkward conversation to bring up it can be started in a casual conversation or you can start by having a family sit down and talking about the severity of it and how it is such a large issue in the world today. By doing this it allows you to normalize the awkwardness of the conversation and allow everyone within the family to know that they have a support system if they ever do experience those feelings. 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-teens-suicide/parents-often-dont-know-when-teens-have-suicidal-thoughts-idUSKCN1P82LV