I am haunted by the image of my daughter's completely pale, nearly translucent, bloated face as she lay near death on the hospital bed, and the terrifying yet hollow feeling of having the doctors hold up lifeless limbs and point out her mutilated and scarred body.
Sunday July 11th 1999 is a date that will forever remain in my memory. That day marked the beginning of living through a nightmare, a mother's most feared moment, I was called to the hospital to see the body of my daughter - near death, then to discover that she had attempted suicide by overdosing on anxiety and insomnia pills. My beautiful, bright, creative daughter had tried to kill herself, and nearly succeeded. The consequences of that attempt and post events are far reaching.
There is possibly nothing I can say to give an idea of how deeply the experience and post events have affected me. I have undergone just about every emotion possible and deeply felt pain, hurt, anguish, anger, horror, guilt, fear, and helplessness...
These are the opening paragraphs of Brief Candle: Letters To My Suicidal Daughter, an e-booklet of one mother's story of her teenage daughter's unexpected suicide attempt, and its effects and consequences. What drives a well-off teenager to attempt or commit suicide? How can their families understand and cope? Is there anything they can do to put their son or daughter back on the right track and prevent future attempts?
This is a true story, a collection of correspondence and commentary. It tells of the effects of teenage suicide on one family's life. It tells of their attempts to deal with a "difficult" teenager, and the difficult decision they had to make in their attempt to make her realise life is worth living, and happiness can be achieved - but must be earned.
If you have suffered a similar story, or are having problems dealing with a difficult teenager, or are just interested in teenage psychology, you'll be interested in this e-booklet, available as a pdf (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file for only A$9.00 (plus 10% GST in Australia). Just purchase using the options below and we will e-mail you the file, which you can view and print at your leisure. As we provide it at this very low price, please support us in your turn by not simply passing it on to your friends.
