Great article. I share the following experience, several years ago my brother was telling me about several teenagers that had taken their own lives in his area, one was in his ward, they were just two of a number of suicides in their area and high school. He was standing in line at the viewing for one of these kids and in front of him was a lady who is one of the counselors at the high school, he said to her, "what the heck is going on", she replied " I don't know, I can't explain it, we talk to them all the time about it, have assemblies, etc, tell them come talk to us, talk with somebody, family, teachers, whoever". I said to my brother maybe that's part of the problem, maybe we are talking to much about it. Not long after that I was talking to a neighbor, who at the time was in the stake presidency and is also a counselor/therapist, works mainly with young adult men 18-25, I told him about the conversation with my brother and asked him what he thought, he said it's interesting you mention that, I just asked my daughter about that the other day, she was a senior in high school at the time, her reply to her dad was, " we are tired of it, it's dark and depressing all the talk of suicide all the time". Interesting and insightful comment coming from a teenager. I think the same applies to all this mental health stuff, there is a line where it goes from reasonable concern to are we creating a problem and certainly if you have the state mandating testing you are very possibly creating problems.
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Corey D.August 22, 2025
Great article. I share the following experience, several years ago my brother was telling me about several teenagers that had taken their own lives in his area, one was in his ward, they were just two of a number of suicides in their area and high school. He was standing in line at the viewing for one of these kids and in front of him was a lady who is one of the counselors at the high school, he said to her, "what the heck is going on", she replied " I don't know, I can't explain it, we talk to them all the time about it, have assemblies, etc, tell them come talk to us, talk with somebody, family, teachers, whoever". I said to my brother maybe that's part of the problem, maybe we are talking to much about it. Not long after that I was talking to a neighbor, who at the time was in the stake presidency and is also a counselor/therapist, works mainly with young adult men 18-25, I told him about the conversation with my brother and asked him what he thought, he said it's interesting you mention that, I just asked my daughter about that the other day, she was a senior in high school at the time, her reply to her dad was, " we are tired of it, it's dark and depressing all the talk of suicide all the time". Interesting and insightful comment coming from a teenager. I think the same applies to all this mental health stuff, there is a line where it goes from reasonable concern to are we creating a problem and certainly if you have the state mandating testing you are very possibly creating problems.
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