Wendy Lay, director of children’s services at Four Rivers Behavioral Health, cautions that anxiety and depression that are so severe that they could lead to suicide typically results from unresolved issues that compound on top of one another. “There is this illusion on social media that everyone’s life is wonderful, it’s their best photos, their best tweets, their best moments and it’s a portrayal of life that isn’t real,” “We are now more aware of the effect of trauma in a teenager’s life,” she explains. “Trauma can be anything from the teenager’s experience of parents divorce, death of a parent or other significant person, natural disaster, move or medical event. Teens absorb not only what directly happens to them but also the struggles of their parents and friends.” “When those traumas are overlooked or untreated, they can lead to anxiety or depression. So, sometimes it is what is happening to them right now, but it might also be what has happened to them in the past,” she says, explaining that the need for FRBH services is so great that they regularly have between 800 and 1,000 open cases in the FRBH’s Center for Specialized Children’s Services alone. Gretchen Roof, FRBH director of clinical services, points to a biological reason why teenagers are unable to cope with the pressures of their world in the same ways that adults do. “Kids are biologically different,” she says. “The part of our brain that controls things like impulsivity and decision-making is not fully formed until we are 25 or sometimes maybe even 28 years old. Because of this, teenagers are not capable of making the same level of decisions as a full grown adult.” “Additionally, they also haven’t had the life experiences that an adult has had. So, as we go along, we have struggles and we get through those hard times and we learn that things do improve. We can then base our current decisions on that experience. Kids don’t have as many of those past experiences to call upon.” Some experts point to societal factors that are different for this age group than any that have come before. “Social media has supposedly connected us, but I think loneliness is at an all-time high,” says Charles Moore, senior pastor at First Baptist Paducah. “I think the reason is that we are not really connected, it’s a pseudo connection.” Pastor Moore, who experienced a teenage suicide first-hand in his congregation and says that “more than anything I’ve experienced, it rocked this church to the core,” he also believes there is still a very real stigma associated with mental illness. “There is this illusion on social media that everyone’s life is wonderful, it’s their best photos, their best tweets, their best moments and it’s a portrayal of life that isn’t real,” he says. “So you have people who look and think everyone has all of this great stuff going on and here I am without that.” How can we kill suicide? From all experts, we hear one statement: suicide is preventable. Most agree that if a person, regardless of their age, can ask for and receive help for their depression or anxiety, then their risk of suicide is diminished greatly. How, then, can we start a conversation that leads to a reduced stigma around suicide and mental health illnesses?
