Hi, my name is Lindsay Weisner. I am a Clinical Psychologist specializing in suicidal teenagers, a podcaster, and the co-author of the soon-to-be-released self-help book Ten Steps To Finding Happy, which will be released on March 20th in association with the United Nations International Day of Happiness.
Confession: My co-author and I paid to publish this book ourselves. She owns a small indy publishing company, and so we split the cost to publish this book. Getting the support of the UN was huge. And our book is good. Ten steps, easy to do, all backed by scientific research.
Our book is good. But our mission is much bigger. And much more important.
Over the past few years, my work with suicidal teenagers has been life-changing. For me and hopefully for them. We, as a society are afraid to talk about thoughts and feelings of suicide. If a child or teen expresses these thoughts, we panic (understandably) . We send them to the hospital for a psych eval or send them to therapy or start them on meds and then -- And then we tell them to be silent about their pain.
At least half of the parents of my patients are quick to advise their child to hide their depression and suicidal ideation from the school, the rest of the family, and their friends.
The result? Now we have a depressed, suicidal teenager who is shamed by this secret and isolated from people who could potentially help them. This has to stop.
