"No one would care if you killed yourself," I thought as I stood in front of my locker in high school. That day I'd been called the n-word and a homophobic slur. Classmates passed by. I had a smile plastered on my face; no one had any idea how much I wanted to die overnight so I didn't have to come back tomorrow. I fought my suicidal thoughts into submission, but more and more I wondered, "Should I just give in?" Exhausted, I repeated one of the mantras I had to stay alive: "Get to college. Maybe things will be better."

The mantra worked. Today I'm a child and adolescent psychiatrist. And I'm intimately aware that adolescent suicidality persists. One in five high school students considered suicide in 2023, and suicide is the second-leading cause of death for children, adolescents

See Full Page