When Children Commit Suicide

This is just awful.



Can a 6-year-old commit suicide? That’s the question police are asking after Samantha Kuberski was found hanging from a crib, a belt carefully tied around her neck and tethered to the bars. Samantha’s family says that following a fight with her mother, the young girl announced she was going to kill herself before she was sent to her room, where she apparently did just that. But local police aren’t so sure. "It's not that we disagree with the mechanics of what happened,” said McMinnville, Oregon police Capt. Dennis Marks. “It's the finding that a 6-year-old could form that kind of intent."

But it’s not unheard of for children that young to be treated for depression just like adults are—and parents of depressed children say that sometimes drugs are necessary to prevent incidents like the one in Oregon.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-02/the-preschool-depression-boom-1/?cid=hp:mainpromo2

I can not believe that a 6 year old truly understands the concept of death and the permanence of death. I simply do not believe that. Plenty of children try dangerous things, despite their parents' desperate warnings. Most do not end in death, if only because the body has ways of protecting against fatality in many cases (e.g., involuntary breathing when a child holds their breath, vomiting after ingestion of something noxious or toxic).

Sometimes adult professionals THINK like children. This story only serves to underscore that fact. :eyes:

I knew exactly what I was doing.
I just didn't want to be here any more.

At 10 one has developed some sense of "temporary and reversible" verus "permanent and irreversible" as well as the concept of consequences for actions. It would be one hell of a precocious child to have fully developed that sense at six years of age.

of the "won't they feel sorry for the way they've treated me when I'm gone" variety. I doubt she had a well formed concept of the permanence of death and opted for it. More likely she thought "if mom comes in the room and sees me hanging from the crib she won't be mad at me anymore and I can have ice cream" or some such.

The child may not really comprehend it, but even that is not a given - by the time a kid is six he's probably seen a hundred thousand 'deaths' on TV, and you can be sure he's thought about what it means.

The fact is, our culture avoids contemplation of death. Even as it seems to be celebrated in our movies, the religious establishment insists that death is not final, that we will all rise from the dead, blah blah blah. As we culturally avoid the finality of death why should it surprise anyone when a child commits suicide? How many times have we heard "He's in a better place now"?

If a child can not fully comprehend it--its consequences and irreversiblility, then, it is an "accidental death," IMO.

whole point of ten thousand years of religion.

85% of the world's population thinks they will come back. That means they are no different from a six year old. Are ALL suicides accidental deaths?

I honestly don't remember ever not knowing that death was permanent. All it takes is for a 2 year old to squash a bug to see that death is permanent. Of course, my father never laid any "it's with Jesus" crap on me, either. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. The problems start when we start lying to them because of our own discomfort about the subject.

Most young children that I have been associated with (under the age of 5 or so) know on some level what death implies... but they still harbor the notion that it may not be permanent. I'm not talking about religion and any thoughts on what comprises the impacts AFTER death--only understanding that there life as they know it on earth is forever gone.

Suicide simply invokes intent to kill yourself. Many suicides are done in desperation where the individual has reached an emotional point to where life is not worth it anymore. Some suicides are rational plans where the individual is suffering from illness and weighs continuing life in pain versus whatever comes after death. Many however, are desperate acts. Any human being with some self awareness is capable of a desperate act.

Understanding the act, implying recognizing the irreversibility of the act, whether a rational decision or not. Quite different concepts.

The people who die on TV show up later that day on another channel alive and well.

Most kids are told to aleve fears of death that if they die they will go to heaven, be reincarnated etc. Most 6 year olds to not think of terms of forever.

There are some children with severe mental illness that are obsessed with death but I believe this child was angry just acting out and was fairly intent on upsetting her parent and not actually intended to actually die. Unfortunately this continues into late teen years to in some people. (And my two sisters who when are manic and occasionally decide they don't need meds anymore).

My wise parents always gave us a short time to cool down and if we were open to discussing it and were able to affect an attitude adjustment our punishment was over but either way they checked on us in a short amount of time as I did with my kids.

I see no blame here. Really sad situation. But for the grace...

Or an accident where the parents would have been criminally liable, so they engineered a cover-up.

Oh god this is really stupid things..

whether the child wanted to die, thought she wouldn't, or it was a homicide...still so sad no matter the intent.