A - Scary Suicide

Today, I attended a Suicide Assessment, Prevention and Intervention workshop at the school. It was given by two professors from Ohio State University. Wow! First of all, the suicide statistics are out of this world! For every 3 murders in the United States, there are 5 suicides. Amazingly scary! It is definitely a topic that brought up a lot of emotion, especially when they showed a video of high schoolers openly talking about suicide among their friends and themselves. It makes me want to run into the schools right now and bring awareness, tell them that it is okay and give them the confidence to share their emotions with someone. I enjoyed the workshop, because I can see myself applying things I learned. I wish there was, although nearly impossible, a way to get a workshop on everything I may encounter as a high school counselor. Even though I didn't learn everything there is to know about it, I feel more confident that I can control my portion of the situation. Through out the workshop, I kept feeling that gut reaction to a teen telling me they are suicidal. Aw, heart breaking. Suicide is scary.