We’re continuing the conversation with our guest, Natalie Alyssa Sanchez, recent high school graduate and advocate for teenage mental health.  In Part II of our talk with Natalie, the theme of teen and pre-teen suicide came up. Natalie shared candidly that a friend disclosed to her that he was suicidal and the unfortunate suicide of a pre-teen who was friends with her sister. As we have stressed at length on this show, suicidal thoughts happen to children as well as adults.  

To begin, Natalie shared that a good friend of hers in middle school practiced self-harm and later admitted to being suicidal.  To be clear, self-harm and suicide share similar roots, but are not the same thing. (This week’s blog deals with the challenging overlap between these two issues, “Self-Harm and Suicide.”)  Additionally, we explore how a young person is supposed to know if another teen/pre-teen has thoughts of suicide.  Finally we discussed how to know if a teen is really suicidal or is engaging in attention-seeking behavior.