Suicide
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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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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Teens talk about helping at-risk friends choose life
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: After reading the column about how to help prevent suicide (July 16), I want to say that, over the years, I have attracted friends who were cutting, depressed,…
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