http://kidamnesiac.okcomputer.org/2012/07/08/schadenangst/ Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit... Thu, 18 Feb 2016 12:02:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.4 http://kidamnesiac.okcomputer.org/2012/07/08/schadenangst/comment-page-1/#comment-740 Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:43:37 +0000 http://kidamnesiac.okcomputer.org/?p=2989#comment-740 Early last year, a twelve year old boy in our town committed suicide. It was a shock to the entire town; David was well liked, no reason to think he’d been bullied, his family situation seemed stable, his friends believed he was a happy successful kid.
For a variety of reasons, Doug and I went to a session held at the school the week after the death, led by a grief counselor. It’s objective was to help parents know how to answer their kids’ questions. Or at least to give them some ideas, or validate their instincts.
Anyway, in the course of this, one mother stood up and said, “Today my daughter asked me, ‘If David was happy and no one knows why he did this, how do I know that I won’t be next?'”
The counselor didn’t have a real great, or memorable answer. But your questions today made me remember this. Perhaps part of your anxiety is wanting to know why these sad things happened, in order to reassure yourself that you are different, that some awful thing can’t happen to you.

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