How to Help Teens Cope with Stress and Loss
During these stressful times, it’s important for teens to have an outlet for their struggles. Here are some ideas for how parents can help. By Kelly Gilmore
“W
hen a young person might have a first thought of suicide between when they make a suicide attempt, it can be as short as 20 minutes,” says Shana Burgess, director of JoCo Mental Health Center in Kansas City. This is a sobering statistic. Twenty minutes is the very short and very real time interval between initial thought and action for a young teen struggling with dark thoughts. For two moms, this short interval is a harsh reality, having had lost their two teens to suicide.
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Central Florida Lifestyle | May 2020
A Family Tragedy
BJ Thomas Wilson and Sylvia Harrell are the mothers of Regan Wilson and Chad Harrell, two teens whose lives ended far too early due to internal struggles caused by external pressures. Wilson explains that in December of 2017, her daughter Regan was struggling with immense pressures of passing her CNA exam, while Harrell describes the day her son got into trouble and wasn’t allowed to attend a party, which angered him immensely.
