Helping to prevent suicide

Congratulations on your public service by highlighting suicide and trauma on Father’s Day on the front page of your innovative new Ideas Lab section (“Suicide leaves ones left behind on hard journey,” June 17).

About the worst thing that can happen to a father or mother is for their child to commit suicide.

As a psychiatrist who treated highrisk patients for over 40 years, I would add one counterintuitive piece of information to your readers as far as preventing suicide.

After many suicides, including high profile suicides of celebrities and physicians, loved ones are surprised because the person who commits suicide is looking better right before the suicide. How can that be? The reason is that they have now decided to commit suicide to end their unbearable psychological pain and feel relieved about their decision.

So, don’t only ask someone if they are feeling suicidal when they seem depressed, but also ask if they are seeming to be happy and better when there is no obvious reason to be in that emotional state at the time. So often, if a person is prevented from committing suicide, if they receive good treatment, they are later grateful that they didn’t die when they were planning to.

In the long run, I would also predict that the mission of the Lovells and their supporters to better recognize, prevent and reduce trauma will reduce suicides. It can often take a village to raise a child to not become suicidal.

H. Steven Moffic, M.D.

Milwaukee