Suicide and Mental Illness: Subvert the Shame

Last updated on: October 20, 2016 at 8:26 am by Andrew Esqueda

Suicide and Mental Illness: Subvert the Shame 2016-10-20T08:26:21-04:00 Andrew Esqueda

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I just recently spoke to a group of our high school and middle school parents about teen suicide. This is an important topic that affects many people, and it’s a topic that is not often discussed. The age range we are addressing is roughly between the ages of 10-24—essentially the years of adolescent development, although those parameters can be argued.

We talked about some scary statistics regarding the suicide rates in young people: suicide is the second leading cause of death for the age range of 10-24; according to the 2015 CDC report on suicide, in the last 12 months %17 percent of students grades 9-12 have considered attempting suicide and %13.6 created a plan about how they would attempt suicide; and, there were many more stats that we discussed.

I noticed something that seems to be fairly pervasive amongst the parents that I encounter: NO ONE TALKS ABOUT SUICIDE. It’s as if talking about suicide is taboo. Is it so for merely cultural reasons? Have institutions failed our teens and our parents? Is it not worth the energy and even heart ache to address suicide in our schools, churches, and public institutions for the sake of keeping our young people alive and psychologically healthy?

It’s not only that we don’t talk about suicide it’s that we don’t even talk about some of the leading causes of suicide. Now, there isn’t much research in regards to why individuals commit suicide as that’s next to impossible to examine. There is however research exploring some key factors that help lead to and/or act as triggers toward self-harm.

One of the leading risk factors for suicide is mental illness, and we don’t talk about mental illness either! How many of you have heard a sermon, had a class, or addressed mental illness, depression, or addiction directly in your church or youth group? Some of you may have, but I can bet the majority haven’t. And many of you that have addressed the issue of mental illness or suicide have done it post tragedy.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services less than 20% of children and adolescents who suffer from some form of diagnosable mental illness receive the treatment they need. We need to talk about this! And, we need to talk about it openly with our students and parents. This is an issue and this is real! Many parents do not think mental illness or suicide will affect their student(s) or community, that is, until it does, and I can almost guarantee it will. These are our students, and our student’s peers, who are suffering and not getting the help that they need.

It is time for us, as youth ministers, to be a voice in the midst of too much silence. We must address these real issues and circumstances and we must not gloss over them. The God of the Bible is one who seeks and promotes human flourishing, and it is our duty as ministers of the Gospel to inhabit such a posture and proclaim it loudly. We must encourage our parents to talk openly with their students, and we must plead with them to get their students and family help. It is never too early to get your student(s) help, unfortunately, it is often too late.

We also must be frank and honest with our student’s parents in regard to factors that can lead to mental illness. We need to address parental pressure in school, high expectations, over-scheduling, and for many of our parents we need to let them know that a “B” is just fine. There is no success or goal that is worth compromising the health of our young people.

As the church we have failed to appropriately address suicide and mental illness and as a result we are complicit in so much of the shame laid upon those who are suffering. We must accept and acknowledge the reality of mental illness in our churches and amongst our young people. We must subvert the shame, and it’s time for youth ministers to help lead the way.

(Andrew Esqueda was a seminar leader at #PYM16. Get your tickets for #PYM17 here.)

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