Teen suicide is a big problem in this country. Every year more than 132,000 children aged 15 to 24 attempt suicide. That’s the combined undergraduate population of over a dozen colleges trying to kill themselves every single year. But the problem doesn’t end there…there are an additional 17,000 suicide attempts made every year by kids aged 10 to 14. To put that in terms easier to comprehend, that’s the entire student body of over 15 middle schools.
One of the major reasons for all these suicide attempts by children is poor anger management skills. The children just can’t cope with their situations…and because they have poor anger management skills, they quickly work themselves up into attempting killing themselves. Parental ignorance of suicide warning signs compounds the problem and reinforces the child’s wish to kill themselves.
It is important to note that almost all children will exhibit some sort of warning signs before they attempt suicide. Over 75% will even give you a verbal warning before doing it(basically to gauge your reaction)…it won’t be as clear as “mom I’m going to kill myself”, but after the child commits suicide, you’ll always remember the words they spoke to you that could have helped you save your child’s life.
If your child is displaying poor anger management skills they may be a high risk for a suicide attempt. As a parent, you need to learn all the potential suicide warning signs, so that you can see if your children are at risk in the near future of killing themselves. Then once you know they are safe, you should work on teaching proper anger management skills to prevent any future suicide attempts due to poor anger management skills.
Tags: anger management for teens, teen health