Children are like dogs. Very seldom will they express their inner pain.
When a child does talk about how unhappy, sad, discontent he/she is, you must take it seriously. There are tens of thousands of unreported child suicides every year that are labeled “accidents,” because it’s easier for an adult to accept their kid just “fell off” a tall rooftop, rather than diving or jumping off.
Often, these children are born to borderline disordered mothers who are not equipped to cherish and be responsive to their kid’s emotional needs. This child suffers in silence~ because most psychotherapists have no understanding of the core trauma their young client has endured from infancy onward, due to maternal neglect and/or abuse.
Acutely unhappy children fantasize about injuring themselves severely enough, just to get a sense of their parents tender concern. They imagine Mom’s or Dad’s painful reaction or response, if they narrowly manage to escape death. Many children who die during these attempts to secure a parent’s heartfelt attention and care, don’t survive to observe the results.
I was suicidally depressed at twenty years of age. I am all too familiar with the inner struggles that many young children and teens face, which make them feel like life isn’t worth living. It’s impossible with this level of depression, to self-motivate enough to get thru each day, much less, feel able to perform in school and have a decent social life.
Children of mothers with Borderline Personality Disorder have very poor self-worth. They’ve gone thru life feeling defective, never good enough, and unlovable. If this child is sent to a therapist’s office, talk therapy doesn’t do much good, for deep down inside is a broken heart that requires mending, with the help of a highly specialized professional.
Transgender-oriented children are, for the most part, constantly trying to imagine a ‘quick fix’ for their inner despair and discontent. As they age, they often get numerous body piercings and tattoos, experiment with various drugs, sex practices (like S & M) and homosexuality in order to finally find SOMETHING/ANYTHING that resolves their inner pain, and helps them feel content, happy and “normal.” I’ve always called this the “Magic Bullet Effect.”
One who has been unhappy and felt empty their entire life is always looking for the magic bullet that will eradicate their pain, once and for all~ and the endless seeking of answers to one’s agony with all sorts of new and novel experiences promises, at least at the start, to be the magical “cure” for feelings of inadequacy one has sought to eradicate, their entire life.
IF your kid has the exceptional courage to tell you about his or her inner pain, PAY ATTENTION and DO something to help them resolve it~ or to your great shock and surprise, they might one day become another child suicide statistic~ because nobody took what they said seriously, or cared enough to help.