shift

60% of high schoolers have thought about killing themselves.

14.5% have made actual plans.

900,000 youth have been depressed and planned suicide

9% of my peers have tried to kill themselves at least once.

Does that surprise you? Does every new teen suicide in high schools this year eat at you?

That’s just suicide.

1 in 5 teens have self-injured at least once

1% of teens have eating disorders- 6 people in a high school class of 600

About 20%,  or 1 in 8 teens, will experience depression before adulthood.

10-15% have symptoms of depression at any time.

30% of teens with depression abuse drugs and alcohol.

Depressed teens may be as much as 12 times more likely to commit suicide.

Less than 30% of depressed teens get help.

Isn’t is time for us, as a society, to start thinking? To start speaking, to start writing, to start asking questions?

Does this happen at your school?

Is this happening to your friends?

What can you do to help?

:::

This is the introduction to our group’s written symposium on the challenging topic of Self-Preservation vs. Self-Mutiliation. We would love it if you read through each of our personal reflections on this topic, and we value your comments, experiences and perspectives.

We also encourage you to reference our list of Resources, should you or someone you know need help.