myths abo Christian Responses to Kids By Dr. Beverly Yahnke
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arrie was a really bright girl who always wanted to please everyone. She was a little shy and never really seemed to have a best friend. She wanted to be a teacher someday so that she could help kids. But Carrie’s life story ended prematurely because she committed suicide in her senior year. Her family and community were shocked beyond words. No one had a clue. Everyone felt guilty, certain that they must have missed some signs. Only Carrie’s suicide note allowed a glimpse into her pain. She wrote,“I hate myself, I hate my life and it hurts too much to live.” How is it possible to feel so depressed, so hopeless, so isolated and unloved that teens could consider ending their lives? Psychologists acknowledge that some teens can feel helpless to respond to their personal pain and may retreat quietly into a private cocoon, deeply wounded, yet keeping the love and genuine care of others at a distance. According to The Center for Disease Control, suicide is a public health epidemic. It reports that 50 to 80 percent of teens think about suicide when they are in some sort of pain. An unspeakable 8 to 10 percent of teens attempt suicide. As unthinkable as it seems, each year almost five thousand young people end their own lives. Suicide has become the third leading cause of death among those aged fifteen to twenty-four, following only car accidents and homicides. How can Christians respond to this kind of epidemic? We are called to speak the truth in love to one another.Truth trumps the lies that tempt depressed people to end their lives. Examining the top ten lies, or myths, about suicide equips us to respond to others in need.
H I G H E R
T H I N G S __ 10
1. People who talk about suicide won’t really do it. Threatening suicide helps us to desensitize ourselves to the horror of the actual act of taking a life.We become numb to the horror of what suicide really is. Many who commit suicide have talked with others about their pain and their plans, only to be regarded as attention seeking or to be thought theatrical.
