A teenager's suicide: is it always the parents' fault?
I came across an article about a mother's grief over the loss of her teenage daughter through suicide, excerpt and link below:
"Published in 2019 by Ethos Books, Loss Adjustment is a personal reflection by copy-editor Linda Collins on her journey with her husband, Malcolm McLeod, after their daughter, Victoria, committed suicide in 2014.
Collins, 60, works as a copy editor at the political desk of the Straits Times. McLeod is deputy picture editor at ST. 0
Victoria was their only child.
Three years after the incident occurred, Collins recounts her 17-year-old daughter’s suicide in this book, weaving in her daughter’s diary entries, personal memories and accounts from the people in her life"
Some of the comments on the original post in facebook accuse Victoria's parents of neglect, and of not reaching out to her when she was in pain.
Was it necessarily so?
I agree with those who say that the bond between parent and child could have been fractured long before the suicide took place. And that sharing meals together did not help alleviate the pain in Victoria's hidden life.
However, at the same time, we have yet to ascertain the origin, the circumstance or series of circumstances that brought about the silent "wailing of a bruised and battered heart".
It may not be entirely the parents' failure to reach out,or should I say reach in, to her. Her decision to end her life could perhaps be avoided if she had reached out to her parents for help instead.
After all, her mother was kept in the dark throughout the years.
