The articles and readings for this week discussed various situations of youth at risk for suicide. This included many stories and vignettes of various children, and especially how BIPOC youth are particularly predisposed to be higher risk based off cultural and social factors such as access to and perceptions of mental healthcare, experiences of racism and discrimination, and other ecological factors. In Stewart's article "Treatment of Culturally Diverse Children and Adolescents with Depression," he discusses the important of cultural context and other significant statistics regarding access to healthcare among various racial and ethnic minorities. Something about this resonated with me as a Latinx individual, knowing my family's way of relating to the healthcare system, mental illness and its care, etc. with much distrust and uncertainty.
The New Yorker piece, "The Mystifying Rise of Child Suicide," was moving, and very emotionally evocative. The story of Trevor and his suicide was very tragic, and I couldn't help but be struck by how the systems of care truly failed him. Issues such of pathologizing Trevor's behavior to suspecting ODD, rather than realizing his depression, at first, could have perhaps changed his trajectory. When he was ultimately hospitalized for suicidality, the treatment was traumatic for him, which contributed to his feelings of isolation and abandonment. Ultimately, his trauma was never treated, either. While, in many ways, it feels like there was nothing that could have been done. That doctors, schools, students, and his family were all doing their best to help. But the failures in the system meant to serve him also seem apparent to me. Perhaps my family's historic distrust of the healthcare system is not, entirely, unfounded.
The story of Anna in this piece also stood out to me, as it was mentioned that she had Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and that her fainting left her feeling vulnerable and unsafe in her school, worried of being assaulted. As someone with POTS, myself, I understand her struggle and can only imagine how being the "the only black girl in her class" as she mentioned, and her intersectional identity as a black disabled young girl result in barriers that can affect her mental health. I was grateful to hear, in that story, that the youth did, after all, survive their suicide attempt. Something I think about a lot, as an individual with POTS and a laundry list of other chronic illness diagnoses, is the mind-body connection and how one's physical condition work in tandem with mental health. I'm wondering, if, from a biological approach, the hormones and brain chemicals released from fainting often, and its consequent effects on the autonomic nervous system, could increase one's risk of suicidality on a biochemical level. The personal research I've done is where the personal and professional start to overlap for me. I always feel seen hearing similar stores.