How to Help a Child with Suicidal Thoughts

How to talk to kids about suicide

You’ve noticed that your child has been act­ing dif­fer­ent­ly late­ly. Whether your child has been more with­drawn, or more out­go­ing, you may begin to sense that some­thing is up. Hav­ing a child with sui­ci­dal thoughts may be one of the last con­sid­er­a­tions in your mind. Sui­cide in chil­dren is still one of the more taboo top­ics in Amer­i­can soci­ety, for a vari­ety of rea­sons. Some peo­ple are uncom­fort­able talk­ing about sui­cide with such a vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tion, while oth­ers dis­miss the like­li­hood of chil­dren hav­ing thoughts of sui­cide. Yet, there a num­ber of fac­tors that can affect a child’s expo­sure to sui­cide, be it through the media, through peers at school, through a med­ica­tion’s side effects, or via a com­mu­ni­ty tragedy. In fact, in 2022, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Utah found that sui­cide “is the sec­ond lead­ing cause of death for young peo­ple ages 10–24, since 2014 and in Utah it’s the lead­ing cause of death for chil­dren ages 10–17…We have seen chil­dren as young as six or sev­en report­ing sui­ci­dal thoughts.” These can be scary sta­tis­tics for par­ents, par­tic­u­lar­ly Utahn par­ents, which may be why some par­ents choose to shy away from or ignore this top­ic.  

How­ev­er, com­mu­ni­ca­tion is your best tool for address­ing this top­ic, despite how uncom­fort­able it may be. For­tu­nate­ly, the myth of “if I talk to some­one about their thoughts of sui­cide, they’re more like­ly to do it” is false. Yet, you may still have reser­va­tions. How do I know the signs of sui­cide? What do ques­tions do I ask? What do I say? The info­graph­ic below pro­vides a table with exam­ples of dif­fer­ent signs (although not com­pre­hen­sive), as well as ques­tions you can ask your child about their emo­tions and expe­ri­ences, as well as state­ments where you can share your love and con­cern. 

Please include attri­bu­tion to https://www.bridgehopefamilytherapy.com/ with this image and doc­u­ment.

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If you still feel uncom­fort­able talk­ing about this top­ic, or want some addi­tion­al assis­tance in nav­i­gat­ing these con­ver­sa­tions, reach out and let’s talk togeth­er. I have years of expe­ri­ence work­ing with par­ents like you, as well as chil­dren who have shared thoughts of sui­cide. I am con­fi­dent that I can help you with your sit­u­a­tion. Send me a mes­sage below and let’s have a con­sul­ta­tion about your expe­ri­ences. 

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