mrL wrote:
It's rather amazing how many of us have attempted suicide and never got help. I think many parents secretly know they are responsible when their kids commit suicide or attempt but they are more concerned about the perceptions of others and preserving their own survival than their kids. Useless people.
While i understand what you are saying, i think it depends on the individual parents, areas.
I would never blame the parents for if their child committed suicide. The parents are usually shocked and are victims, they and the remaining family and friends are "survivors" left after the person has taken their life.
The guilt the should have could have done is there, yet it's a survivor's guilt. Sometimes there is truly nothing one could have done.
If you had no idea to begin with, you wouldn't be able to stop it.
Then there are the cases where the parents are neglectful/abusive/addicts/or don't pay attention or care to tend their children. Maybe they are too busy "keeping up with the Jones" and the white picket fence image with their neighbor. I though psychiatry became more acceptable over the years in the USA anyway.
Honestly, mrL, do you have children yourself?
I can't imagine any loving parent who would sit back and do nothing while knowing their child was suicidal.
My friend just turned 23 when he killed himself last month. There was nothing anyone could have done. I still have guilt as i feel that with my psychiatric background i should have been able to identify warning signs better. Then i blamed it on my "zoning out" a lot and possibly i missed signs. Yet mutual friends who hung out missed signs also. It's just the shock that we had no idea and then he murdered himself.
When i found out it hit me hard. It had to be the most hardest emotional death i've ever dealt with in my life. And i've been through many losses. I think the sheer shock of what happened, the not expecting it, and survivors guilt that maybe i could have prevented it had i noticed enough...