[andysandmikesmom]

I am also always troubled when teens commit suicide...its so hard for me to imagine why a teen would commit suicide, when they have their whole lives to look forward to....

Sometimes I think we send a wrong message to teens...so often, we tell them, that their teen years are the most wonderful years of their lives...they could be on the verge of deciding what career to pick, they are falling in love, they are in high school, with the activities that come with that, they are, like you say, finding an image of themselves...

But sometimes these things go wrong, and the teen becomes despondent, and then thinks that if he feels so miserable now, and if these years are supposed to be the best in his life, than he really has nothing to look forward to...

In true fact, for so many teens, those teen years are pure hell....maybe they are not popular, maybe they are having trouble with their studies, maybe they dont have many friends, maybe they just feel out of place...

In time, no doubt, those things will probably change, if they can just be patient and wait...but one thing a teen is not, is patient, and one thing they dont want to do, is wait...

Its a difficult time, for parents and teen alike...

[palo verde]

my heart goes out to teenagers
you are right
if they can just make it thru
things get better afterwards
junior high is hard
but after that can come hard problems too
being addicted, or pregnant, or about to be arrested for a crime
those things cause desperation
where they see no way out
but if they would hang on, around the next corner a solution can be found