Suicide is the #2 killer of teenagers.

When I reveal this fact to friends, colleagues, or audiences,
I usually get a serious blank stare. It’s quite disturbing. Adolescent suicide meets every medical definition of an epidemic. More teenagers, and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, strokes, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED.

Each day in the United States, 5,000 kids in grades 7 through 12 attempt suicide.

Four out of five of these kids have given clear warning signs.

Disappointingly, most medical practices are not equipped to handle these kids. These adolescents are typically being followed by a pediatrician, who is seeing 35 patients a day, and can not possibly give the time and focus that these kids need.

At the St. Jude clinic each appointment is 2 hours long.

I am often asked why would a beautiful young person with their whole life ahead of them, want to end their life. Sometimes the root of the problem is clear. However, the truth is, in most cases, no one knows. Not the kid, not their parents, not their teachers, not their friends, not their doctors, and not medical science. But not knowing the cause, does not mean than we are helpless to provide life saving treatment.

Medications, are helpful, when appropriate, and skillfully prescribed. Diet, exercise, supplements, sleep, and cognitive behavioral therapy, are tailored to eacn child.

But let me be clear…….The number 1 reason why a sick child becomes a well child, is the relationship that the doctor has with the child he is treating. There are no half measures when working with these kids. You have to be all the way in, otherwise there will be no emotional connection. And believe me, these kids know the difference.

You have to love them. When they feel that, they begin to slowly get better.

A 15 year old girl once said to me, “Dr. Mitch, I don’t feel normal, I feel like there is a part of my heart that is missing.”

“What part, I asked?”

She replied, “The part that makes you want to live.”

I said to her, “ok, I have a plan……..l’m going to take a piece of my heart, graft it on to your heart, and until you get better……..l’m going to live for both of us. When you feel your heart beating, that will be me, letting you know that I am right here with you.”

That’s how much you have to love them.