Childhood Abuse and Trauma Destroys Children Mentally and Physically
WASHINGTON (PRWEB) September 14, 2018 -- Two of my dearest friends have killed themselves and foster children Kendra Johnson was 6 when she committed suicide by hanging and Gabriel Myers was 7. 1 out of 150 child suicide attempts succeed. 99% of those children only hurt themselves and cement their feelings of failure and self-hate. This is National Suicide Prevention Month and “in my many years of raising awareness to prevent child abuse these numbers are getting worse…149 of these children don’t make it into the newspaper or onto nightly news and no one knows how traumatized and miserable they are…” stated the founder of Kids At Risk Action Mike Tikkanen.
Abused and neglected children get little help dealing with their trauma induced mental health issues. Medicating very young children without trauma informed mental health services is the rule in America.
About a third of our foster children are forced to take psychotropic medications and few get the therapeutic help they need to stay safe and lead a normal life.
Every package of Prozac like medicine has a warning about the dangers of suicidal ideation these drugs cause. In 2014 over 20,000 one and two year old children were forced onto these drugs.
Child protection services in most states are overwhelmed and few communities have enough foster or adoptive families to step up for traumatized children.
Depression, behavioral problems, self-harming and suicidal behaviors are common to State Ward children.
Tikkanen stated… “I ask you to look around and see the world right in front of you. Does your community step up for at risk children? Are there crisis nurseries, adequate trauma informed mental health services in your schools and available for children with the greatest needs? What are we as parents, grandparents, families, friends, neighbors and our community doing to prevent suicides from taking place?...”
Tikkanen continued...“Without our vote for mental health services in schools and trauma informed services available for troubled families, conditions will continue to worsen impacting every element of our community. Education, public health and public safety are all hurting in our communities. 100 million Americans now have a criminal record and U.S. prison recidivism rates are near 80%.”
As the author of the book Invisible Children, & 1200+ articles on these topics since 1996 (http://www.invisiblechildren.org/our-book/ ) Tikkanen concluded... “My friend Sam was 12 when he was abused once by a priest. Sam never told anyone until he was 45, on his 3rd marriage, 4th failed business partnership and 150 pounds overweight when he sought out a therapist. Sam saw the therapist regularly until a few years before he died."
Kids At Risk Action board member Damon Kocina added that “Abuse and trauma interrupts brain development impacting a life forever. Abused children feel dirty inside and blame themselves for the terrible things that have happened to them – leading to lifelong feelings of failure and diminished self- worth”.
The suicidal ideation warning printed on every package means that fully formed thoughts of killing yourself in waking moments may happen at any time with no self-control or understanding. This is truly frightening and can cause suicide.
Eden Gordon, Eden Gordon Media, http://www.edengordonmedia.com, 202-714-6014, [email protected]
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