When I read Richard Zwolinski’s most recent Therapy Soup blog post, this quote caught me off guard:

“While I know of suicidal youth as young as 5 or 6 years of age, the youngest suicidal patient that I worked with was 11 years old. She felt as though no one understood her pain and no one loved her and she felt hopeless about her life.”

That was part of Richard’s interview with Dr. Alec Miller, a professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-author of Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Adolescents.

Eleven years old! And not to mention five. Five years old! It’s heartbreaking to imagine someone that young — someone who is so new to our world — feeling hopeless enough to consider suicide.

But it happens, sadly. According to Dr. Miller, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among 10 to 18 year olds.

Check out this week’s videos for more facts about adolescent suicide and the resources that are available to help prevent it:

For even more statistics on adolescent suicide, check out this data.

Comments

This post currently has 0 comments.
You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts.

Trackbacks

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 27 Apr 2012
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.