“We Must Talk About Suicide” and Protect Our Kids

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, lynnswarriors.org. Well, run by Lynn Shaw, protecting our kids. What is she doing this week, and what does she consider very, very important to protect?

0:16 Speaker 2 Good morning, John. This week we must, we must, we must talk about September is Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month because this conversation that we have, you and me, can save a life. And I don’t hear many in the media in the past few weeks even discussing suicide at all.

0:34 And I want to discuss as well the suicide rate, John, for girls. ages 10 to 19 have soared in the last five years. Girls as young, did you hear me, John? As young as 10. And studies, we have a new study out, and the study is showing because they’re spending so much of their time online, they’re comparing themselves to

0:55 other girls and young women. You know, they’re getting depression, eating disorders. They’re looking at the lifestyles of what you and I know. You know, a lot of this is all fake online. Most of it’s fake online. And they’re seeing these glamorous lifestyles, and they’re like, I could never compare to that. So instead of, you know, talking about suicide,

1:12 we have kids, again, as young as 10, girls especially, killing themselves. And, look, warning. I’m going to put a warning out because this discussion is difficult for many people to hear. It’s emotionally triggering for some. So I warn everybody to listen with care to what we’re saying. But, John, we all know somebody that has committed suicide. It touches everybody.

1:33 And there’s also, I’d like to bust a myth. There’s this myth, you know, if you talk about suicide, that will increase the likelihood somebody may actually try to commit suicide. That is not true. We have so many studies showing if you talk about it, if you show that you’re having an interest, you’re asking somebody how they’re feeling, especially

1:52 our kids, that it helps them tremendously. And a shocking fact, and John, I just found out about this, 90% of suicides in our nation are decided within five minutes. So it’s an impulsive act. So think about that. If it’s so impulsive, if we can get in there beforehand and talk about it and show we care, we may just...

2:13 save a life. But I want to point out, there’s a great resource. It’s two years old now, John. Nobody seems to know too much about it. 988, like we have our 911. We now have 988 is the suicide crisis and lifeline hotline. You can call them for information, call them if you’re in crisis, have it handy. And

2:32 there’s a great organization we at the Warriors work with, save, S-A-V-E.org. They will help you. So I know all this is difficult for people to hear, but When we know for ages 10 to 24 the second leading cause of death for kids in the United States is suicide, we’ve got to talk about it. And also, 20 percent of high

2:51 school students are saying they think about suicide. a lot, very seriously.

2:55 Speaker 1 That is mind-boggling.

2:58 Speaker 2 But that’s why I want to share this with you. We need more. We need the media to step up, like we’re doing right here on the Cats Roundtable, WABC, and talk about this, put out PSAs, and put these facts out there for the public. We can’t hide from this anymore, because you can’t always tell John with a

3:12 child if they’re struggling, right? They internalize it. Most people do, too, but kids especially. So we need to get in there and know these things are happening and then just bring it up to the kids. Even if your kid looks okay, it is a topic for discussion because, you know what, this is a subject matter. I don’t know why they’re

3:30 not out in the middle of Times Square screaming about it, but we all have to worry about the kids. When I tell you about girls as young as 10... committing suicide. These are babies. This is shocking. So look, we’ve got to talk about it. We’ve got to know about 988.

3:43 We’ve got to know about save.org. And we’ve got to get our circle of family, friends, teachers, coaches, counselors, churches, synagogues, everybody together and come up with a plan. We cannot keep having our kids killing themselves. And again, fueled by the internet, because kids, what they’re seeing and hearing on the internet. So let’s get in there and be the leaders.

4:05 Let’s guide them and not let the strangers win and further, you know, harm our kids. I always say, John, there is a war on for our children, and suicide is one of them. Everybody needs to know.

4:15 Speaker 1 It gets worse. I just texted you a news report on WABC the other day that cell phones are altering our children’s brains.

4:29 Speaker 2 We need a whole five hours on that one, just there.

4:31 Speaker 1 All right, so please look at that and look into it.

4:35 Speaker 2 Yes, absolutely. We’ll do that next week. We’ll talk about that next week because we know this is happening. We know we can get the upper hand on all of this, but we’ve got to start with conversation and talking about it.

4:45 Speaker 1 Lynn Shaw, lynnswarriors.org. Thank you for protecting our kids, and we’ll talk again real soon.

4:51 Speaker 2 Thank you, John.