After Stanford University student Katie Meyer committed suicide last month, her parents said they’d seen “no red flags.”
She appeared to be a major success—at everything. She’d been made captain of her team, which she led to a 2019 national championship. She was majoring in international relations, and had made the dean’s list. Hundreds gathered for her memorial on her high school soccer field. Her social media posts were uniformly upbeat right up until her death.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide was among the top nine leading causes of death for people ages 10-64 in 2020. And it’s the third leading cause of death for 15-24-year-olds in the U.S.
What to watch for
But it’s difficult to know who might be at risk.
“Unfortunately, we can’t predict who’s going to go on to die by suicide,” Julie Cerel, a licensed psychologist and director of the Suicide Prevention & Exposure Lab at the University of Kentucky, told NBC News.
Although there are lists of possible signs of suicide (e.g., sleeping too much or too little, social withdrawal, mood swings), they’re often simply the signs of the teenage years.
“The only reliable warning signs,” Cerel said, “are previous suicide attempts or talking about wanting to die.”
What parents can do
Experts suggest that parents equate mental health with physical health when talking with their children.
“If you have a broken bone, you’re going to see the doctor,” Emily Mudd, a pediatric psychologist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, told NBC. “If you have depression, you’re going to see a doctor.”
What’s important, she said, is to “create an environment in your home where your child feels like it’s safe to disclose things.”
Katie Meyer’s father, Steven, urged parents to talk openly to their children about mental health regardless of their ages.
“You may have somebody who has been loved to the ends of the earth and back from the day she was born,” he told NBC’s Today show. “You can love them fully, but you may not understand them fully.”
For more information, check out the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website.
If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). You can also reach a crisis counselor 24/7 by texting HELLO to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
