Suicide
What if high school started an hour later?
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: I read with interest about the mother who couldn't get her son to sleep before midnight. Sleep deprivation is the norm today. But combining sleep deprivation with teens leads to extra problems because teens…
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Learning warning signs of suicide saves lives
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: Regarding last week’s column about the boy who committed suicide, a friend of mine also did lots of increasingly negative drinking, smoking weed and partying.…
1 Comment
Father’s love and courage teaches many
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: Twenty-one months ago, my 18-year-old son jumped to his death from the 720-foot-high Foresthill Bridge. He left for school that morning. At lunch, I got a call that…
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Is 16 too young for a boob job?
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: One of my friends is considering breast implants for her sixteenth birthday. She complains that she is a size B (like most in our class), and wants to be a size C or…
6 Comments
Millennials might be next “Greatest Generation”
DEAR READERS: What’s wrong with the world? How can we improve it? Here is Part II of the panel’s vision for 2010. As I said last week, the Millennial Generation are old souls when it comes to understanding…
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Know the warning signs, most suicides signaled in advance
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: Your recent column (NOV 25) about the sister who kept saying she felt like killing herself really hit home. Threats of suicide need to be taken…
2 Comments
Sibling confides, then denies, suicidal feelings. Now what?
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: I’m 17 and have a 15-year-old sister who I really love and care about. She constantly swings from feeling high to feeling low. She confides in me about her problems…
4 Comments
Boy bounced school-to-school feeling suicidal
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: I just picked up my 16-year-old son from a street corner after he was incommunicado for a week. He’s very mixed up, and I need help. Right before freshman year,…
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Former heroin addict shares life, death
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: I am writing to “Desperate in Salinas” (JUL 15), the girl who was hiding her heroin-addicted boyfriend in her parent’s basement.…
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Silence can be deadly: tell adult about cutter’s secret
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: My friend, “Max”, has huge family problems and is cutting his wrists. The cuts aren’t deep, but his arm is infected because his parents…
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