The only argument against that Psy, is would this kid have comitted suicide anyway?
There were 5 suicides among my family & friends in the space of 3 years a few years back, not one of them went to any program/care etc, they all came from well balanced loving & pretty much wealthy homes
It needs to be asked if suicide is something that some people are just going to do at some stage in their lives no matter what - sort of along the lines of "what has he/she got to be depressed about?" You don't need a reason for depression, it just gets you no matter who you are or what your circumstances.
i agree with this point. i don't have program friends who committed suicide, but known a few people who lived seemingly "normal" lives... so it's a subject that has always perplexed me.
i think a tragedy is that these private programs suggest that they are "help" and so parents with suicidal kids or depressed kids send them to a facility where they will only get punished and ridiculed and institutionalized over a long period of time. if you are already suicidal, this will just make it worse. i see this as a form of negligent homicide, programs purposely lie and parents bypass other treatments that might have been more effective. also, in programs, when kids show signs of suicidal ideation, they dismiss it as "manipulation" where as in normal society the kid might have gotten the help the so desperately needed. that is a tragedy I think.
i was diagnosed as suicidal and majorly depressed and sent to a program to get "help" but instead was just punished. i had been hospitalized for taking so many drugs I od'd and so they assumed I was trying to kill myself.. then when locked away I started cutting to relieve stress without the drugs anymore. So there solution is to send me to a WWASPS camp. Theres something wrong with that equation. And its not just parents either. The adolescent psychiatric advisor actually suggested I be sent to Provo Canyon School, they had brochures at the hospital and everything. THe only reason that didn't work out was because of insurance refusing to pay and my dad had to find the bargain basement version of treatment because he had to pay for it by him,self.
One kid I was friends with at SCL, his dad killed himself while in the program and instead of letting him go home they force him to go on and pretend nothing happens. He got caught for taking 1 morphine pill that he had smuggled in months earlier, obviously to dull the pain of losing his father, and they punish him severly by dropping him to level 1. THey finally let him visit the funeral at his moms request, but a staff went with. THen he got sent back. Its like they have no concept of mental health.
I have countless tales of crazy things kids did like slicing their arms wide open and writing in blood on the wall 'free me', trying to fall on sticks and die, shit like that. But hte program never saw any of this as anything more than manipulation. Suicide to them is jus tanother escape method from the program, and treat is as such.
Karlye ended up killing herslef a couple years after I got out by hanging herself in the shower. Thats really the only way you could of done it at SCL. But to do it that way, you would have to realy try hard, and it would be violent.. it just so sad. I cant even think about it, because I know the feelings and scenery to well.. its too real.
I do think programs contribute to the suicide of certain invidicuals who needed help and never got it. As well as people treated so horribly, their lives are never the same after the experience at the program, and so desperately want the pain to end see no other solution than to end it all. I know because its hard to escape your subconcious thoughts they come out whether you want it or not.
One kid killed himself before being sent back to a program in Jamaica. I have to wonder if this was a contributing factor?
BUt its not like psychiatric hospitals are some heavenly life saving experience either. But my stays were at least somewhat better than SCL, but that ain't sying much. Suicide sucks.
