Teenage Depression Support

Q: My younger sister 12 attempted suicide over the holidays. I couldn;t believe that I missed the signs. My friends mother had me listen to this amazing Doctor at this site www.depression-anxiety.com and this women had me realize how common depression is in teen-agers. If only I had noticed the sadness and depression I could have helped her through this. For all of you mother and fathers out there, please do not ignore the signs, get our kids help fast...... Does anyone know of a teen depression support group in the Dallas Area

A:It's my firm belief parents/friends miss the signs not because they don't know them, but because they don't want to believe anything is wrong with their child. I can speak first hand about that as my parents insisted that there was nothing wrong with my left arm until they finally saw in December 95 (not sure of the year, it's been a long while) what I had been feeling since that September. December was when I was diagnosed with cancer (I was only 16 at the time). Lucky for me I've been in remission for going on 7 years now (yay me). I'm surprised anyone would think otherwise. Then again, I think my child hood was rather extreme in what I had to personally endure (and yes, I know that everyone else always seems to have it easy, but trust me, I had it really bad). I'm truly surprised my first suicide attempt wasn't until 1999 (I was 21 at the time). Sometimes parents miss the signs because they don't see them. I stopped being actively suicidal many years ago, (I only think about it these days) and at best I only tried to end it on 3 occations that I remember. I had a favorite aunt, I just did not realise how favorite until she died a couple of years ago, before she died we had some really long conversations. I never thought anyone in my family knew what was happening to me because no one did anything to stop it. So it surprised me that my aunt would talk about my parents the way she did. My aunt said to me one day, she remembered the first time I tried to kill myself, I said impossible no one in my family knew about it, because I was living away from home at 19. She said she remembered it, because I was only 5 years old. She then told me how on a visit to her home, I had gone missing and she went looking for me, when she found me I was lying in the middle of the road crying, she thought I had fallen over and went to help me, I fought her off, kicking and screaming and begging her to leave me on the road so a truck could run me over and I would be dead. Because I wanted to be dead rather than live with my parents. When my aunt told me this cold shivers went down my spine because I had forgotten and when she spoke about it, the memory came back like a movie in my head I could see myself, lying on the road waiting for the truck to run me over. She had never told my parents nor had I and I have never told my parents about any of my suicide attempts or my depression.

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