|| Replies ||

User	ChickenLittle | 2007-01-16 |
Subject	HMM....
Message	I dont understand why noone would know her name... how did you guys know that it was even a girl?

User	Raineyes | 2007-01-10 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Alot of people died when I was in high school. A good number of them suicide. And we had all sorts of tributes for them and everybody knew. So this is a little odd to me.

User	Blue Monk | 2007-01-03 |
Subject	NoMar
Message	"Someone living after killing themselves is not good news. He could truly not want to live and now be scared out of shooting himself. Now he’s alive and frightened." The truth is that you will only know how he really feels about surviving if you ask him. Chances are since he’s sharing that experience before large groups of people, there is no longer any fear that he feels, only a caring for others. Perhaps he feels he can spare someone else from falling into that trap. In any event, God bless him.

User	Blue Monk | 2007-01-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I think the point is that he lived to regret his own distructive actions which he realized he was doing even before he shot himself. He later found a great purpose and courage enough to explain to others that suicide is no solution to life’s problems. He is uncommonly lucky, and now a blessing to others who can hear his message. Although it’s difficult to realize and much less to care while being in a state of black hole depression, suicide always brings great harm both to the survivors who know you, and even those who don’t. If one can but raise their eyes to look up, there’s always a spot of light at the top of the well. Even that is sometimes difficult to do if you’re alone, but with faith or true friends you are never alone. You’d be surprised what a change away from bad diet, bad habits or, if necessary, a professionally prescribed pill can sometimes do for a total attitude change. Chase the demon away, it can, and let you be yourself. Being on medication doesn’t mean being doped up, there is no shame, it’s only that your health is returned so that your real life can shine forth. Clinical depression, and that’s certainly any that leads to consideration of suicide, is a mental illness. Such a person is sick but we now have numerous cures if it can be recognized and treated in time. Life on this earth is but a finite, burning fuse which will without doubt end of it’s own accord. Snuff it out early and you may miss something truly worth living for. When I say to look up, I mean really, physically look up - and then reach up as high as you can to grasp the heritage that has been given you, life itself, and hold it fast.

User	NoMartyr | 2007-01-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Someone living after killing themselves is not good news. He could truly not want to live and now be scared out of shooting himself. Now he’s alive and frightened. If people want to die, let them. Why are we so sadistic we want to control every single thing in everyone’s fucking LIFE, even the way they die!!! I’m sorry, but I think you are sick.

User	Blue Monk | 2006-12-01 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Here’s some good news - I just saw on TV where a guy who tried to commit suicide by shooting himself with his AKS (think legal AK 47) under his jaw upward so that the bullet came out of his skull above his eye. No way he should have lived after that! Ok, the good news is that he’s alive and well, although not too pretty yet but they’re still working on him, and he’s making the circuit of school systems telling his story about drug abuse and other factors that led him to go that way. We can only pray that his testimony will help others. Who says miracles don’t happen? Maybe he will put it on U Tube or something.

User	WolfStar | 2006-12-01 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I agree with mae about what food teenagers eat. I’m not saying it causes suicide, but I do notice how different I feel when I have a soda. I never have soda, and on the rare occasion that I do, I feel... weird. Sick, almost. My head feels like it’s pulsing and I just don’t feel right. I agree that the trash teenagers eat does affect SOMETHING. I know I’ve felt it.

User	mae | 2006-11-15 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Don’t look into the causes? My goodness, If there’s one cause that HAS been looked into, it’s the cause of teenage suicide. You’re right, life is not technology. Life is primarily relationships, and that is one of the leading causes of teen-age suicide. One of the others is alienation and isolation. Bullying has come up a lot lately - perhaps because it’s so prevalent - and that is a big factor in the feelings of alienation. I’m not saying diet is a cause of suicide. That’s ridiculous. But it is a contributing factor toward a stable mentality in developing brains. If an adolescent’s brain, just because of its age and still-developing status, is prone to extremes - happy as anything to completely depressed - does it not make sense that a diet high in sugar, salt and preservatives could have an effect, often deleterious, on that brain? Then, throw in the flood of hormones pouring over that brain, the emerging sense of self and the insecurity that goes with it that a teen experiences and THEN add the environmental factors that a teen encounters everyday: relationships, alienation, isolation, relationships, pressure to succeed in school-sports-work, relationships, fatigue, the often-deteriorating situation at home, relationships, and, oh yeah, did I mention relationships? And none of that takes into consideration things like alcohol, drugs and other risky behaviors. I’m thinking it’s a wonder anyone even MAKES it to 21! Believe me, the causes of teen suicide have been studied to death (pun intended). The problem is recognizing them for what they are - and not just mistaking them for normal teen behavior. The problem with someone who is prone to extremes as teens are is seeing what is unusual behavior as unsual behavior. And then taking it seriously and not overreacting to an innocent situation. It’s not easy. mae

User	burnitdown | 2006-11-11 |
Subject	Tragic
Message	What’s tragic is that people don’t look into the causes: many people are miserable, not just through bad diet and bad TV, but because life is without meaning. Get a job. Accomplish tasks. Create? As a hobby, for yourself, but it won’t help anyone. Modern society isn’t technology. It’s a state of mind.

User	mae | 2006-11-11 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Your comments on "herd mentality" and benefits and risks of diet will most likely be dismissed by some, blue, but they have merit. To some extent, all humans will adopt a ’herd mentality’ when they feel threatened, and that is extremely strong in adolescents. Studies have shown that the brains of young people between the ages of 12 and the early 20’s are very different than those of older people. The part of the brain that is most active is that part that is involved with the most basic and primitive of responses. The parts of the brain that are quietest are those that deal with reasoning and human’s higher mental efforts. (Sorry, Wolf). Since humans, and especially teens, are basically pack animals, when we perceive any kind of threat (and that can be almost anything) we will either disappear into the pack for protection or separate ourselves from it if we feel that the pack itself is the source of the threat. This is normal teen-aged behavior. What a person needs to look for is a DIFFERENT behavior than normal for that particular adolescent. Trying to define what is normal as opposed to depressed behavior IN GENERAL for teen-agers would be impossible because so much of their normal behavior doesn’t appear very normal since they’re so often doing their pack thing (either into it or out of it). You have to look for behavior specific to a particular kid and determine if that behavior has changed in any significant way. And the very fact that teens’ brains are still developing and have reverted to this primitive state would suggest that dietary substances that have been shown to affect mood would have a very strong effect on teens. Whether we like it or not, there is a stigma attached to suicide. It is viewed either as cowardly and selfish or the families of those who committed suicide are somehow seen as the reason they did it. Either way, the administrators at your school are problably trying to think first of the families’ of these students and show them the privacy and respect that those left deserve. Rather than disturbing that privacy and respect, if you want to do something, why don’t you arrange for counselors or social workers to come in to your school and talk to kids in general about depression, suidal feelings and ways to cope with the difficulties of being a teen in today’s world? Work with the administrators in establishing a suicide education program. Seems like that might be helpful. You can do it in honor of the young girls who killed themselves. Sometimes it’s not easy knowing how to deal with a difficult situation. I’d be inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. mae

User	Blue Monk | 2006-11-10 |
Subject	untitled
Message	There is a well founded fear that others suffering from depression - perhaps related to chemical imbalances in the brain - and/or really bad life situations may take someone else’s terminal action as an acceptance that it was, after all, a way out and "I can do it too... now". It’s a herd mentality that’s best avoided especially when you really don’t know how many people out there are suffering within. There should be an awareness to find real help campaign, but by definition, such persons will most often not seek help for themselves. There are signs to watch for, many are commonly perceived as troubles associated with just growing up and may mistakenly be "blown off" by the unknowing, others have environmental causes. Both need our help. In my own experience, I now view that at least a somewhat proper diet and enough real daily rest for a mind and body is most important. Caffine, sugar and tobacco are bad so cut where you can.

User	WolfStar | 2006-11-10 |
Subject	untitled
Message	No... I know that the administrators know. It did happen. I do not doubt it. This is not the only incident in my area. There was another school a few years go where a girl hung herself in the bathroom and the school refused to have a service for her because it was a suicide. These events aren’t isolated. And it worries me that no one talks about this. I was talking to a few teachers and we’re thinking about starting a public movement to stop the silence on this issue.

User	mae | 2006-11-10 |
Subject	untitled
Message	That’s what I was thinking, also, joey. Has anyone tried to verify that this happened? Drinking drain cleaner I’m sure has been done, but it’s sounds a lot like an urban legend to me. mae

User	joeyalphabet | 2006-11-10 |
Subject	untitled
Message	If no one knows who she is perhaps it’s just a rumor someone started.

User	Blue Monk | 2006-11-09 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Yeah, it sucks.

User	WolfStar | 2006-11-08 |
Subject	untitled
Message	But even if they didn’t release the girl’s name... Don’t you think some kind of action should be taken by the school? I mean, teenagers are KILLING THEMSELVES. You would think that the school would create some kind of reactionary program or do SOMETHING. It’s the silence that disturbs me. I mean, I know so many people who NEED help. And the school is so sucked into this taboo that they don’t say anything.

User	Blue Monk | 2006-11-08 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Perhaps it was the parents or guardian’s wishes not to announce things in detail. Unfortunatley here is still a misguided "shame" associated with both suicide and AIDS. Many if not most suicides are attributable to mental illness which is treatable if caught in time. I’ve lost two good friends to clinical depression not recogized. Learn to spot the signs and do everything you can to get real professional help.

User	DaGrimReaperess | 2006-11-07 |
Subject	untitled
Message	The person is dead. The skool should inform everyone not keep it a secret.

User	onetruesmartass | 2006-11-07 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I understand your frustration. When I was in high school, a girl I’d known most of my life died of AIDS a few days before graduation. At the same time, one of the more "popular" girls died in a car crash because she’d been drinking. Everyone was in tears for the popular girl, no one said a word about my friend. I think there needs to be more places where teens can go to talk to someone on their level about what’s going on, and there needs to be more honest discussion in schools about teen suicide. *onetruesmartass*

User	NoMartyr | 2006-11-06 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I find it rather disturbing how many people want to stop people from steering their lives in a direction they want to. It seems we must control everything, just let the poor fuckers die in peace.