My daughter told me she was depressed and said she would go talk to someone, yet I still read her journal and found a suicide note. What now?

First, never take a threat of this magnitude for granted with a young person. You need to seek help for her. If she truly is suffering from depression, than she needs professional help.

You haven't ruined your relationship, but you may have saved her from a lifetime of anguish if she really does need assistance. As parents, our role is to guide and protect. This is a little of both.

If there was a psychological reason that her father fell into this depression, it could have been hereditary. In that case, she needs to have help. As her parent, you need to worry less about the structure of your relationship, and more about her safety and well being.

If my son was in the middle of the highway and I had a choice of pulling him out of the path of a speeding semi truck or forever ruining our relationship....I'd pull him out of the way. If she is gone, their is no relationship to be had. Lose her for a little while, or risk losing her forever...I'm sure you'll make the right choice.

And trust me, she will thank you for your strength later....and you'll make the relationship even better than you could have imagined. It's the hard and difficult times that bring us closer.

I wouldn't worry so much about a "ruined relationship" right now, your main goal should be to get your daughter the help she needs. I can tell you, from my own experience from dealing with a mentally ill family member, that it can be difficult to get help for people who resist it, but they'll thank you afterwards once they've recovered and their thought processes are working normally. If she won't voluntarily seek help, you may be able to have her involuntarily admitted to a mental health facility for observation and evaluation.

This is an option when a person has threatened harm to themselves or others, and if you've found a suicide note, I wouldn't waste any time! It may take calling the local police department and explaining the situation to get her there. The fact that her father also committed suicide puts her at high risk, so please do whatever you need to, to get her help, and worry about repairing the relationship later.

I know how difficult this situation is, and my prayers are with you.

Tell her suicide is a long term solution to a short term problem. Then get her in for counseling and if necessary committed. Better to have her mad at you now and celebrate her 40th birthday with her then going to her funeral alone.

Holy crap. What's so bad it's worth taking your life? Ask her that.

And no matter what she answers just tell her she only lives once and no matter how bad it gets one day we'll all be dead anyway - why rush it? Live this life for what it's worth, try to make the best of it cause you only have one shot. You can't undo killing yourself and no one really knows if being dead is any better or worse than this life.

Maybe when you kill yourself you live as some tortured soul forever. At least being alive gives you some pleasures and fun even if a lot of it is bad. And definitely get her some counseling.

Maybe get both of you some... sounds like you've had a pretty rough ride.

I answered on the second question asked on the same topic. But don't worry about how you found out until after you start her in some counseling. Teen minds are not fully developed.

The brain doesn't finish developing until the early twenties. Also, suicide is the third biggest reason for the deaths of teens, at least in the U.S. Take her threats seriously, especially because she may be genetically predisposed to depression. I don't think you should try to reason with her until after you get help for her.

You should calmly state that you know that she has been thinking about it and that you are going to get her the help she needs.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.