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Teen-Suicide Novel Wakes Up Readers
My novel, "For the Sake of All Others", is about a principal of a high school who is determined to find out why one of his students committed suicide for the sake of all other students. When the novel came out I was invited to speak about it: TO SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH COUNCIL Thank you for inviting me to the Integrated Services Committee meeting. As I promised, here are my thoughts on the subject of teen suicide. Our county has attracted wealthy retirees. Among them may be some advertising executives willing to volunteer their expertise, their copy-writing skill. When the state of California put its tobacco settlement money into an advertising campaign against smoking cigarettes, it worked. Advertising is powerful. Currently our teenagers are daily exposed to the kind of advertising that makes them doubt their ability to be "normal" or to compete sexually. Their parents are daily exposed to articles and talk shows about the ill effects of parenting. Naturally some are reluctant to let anyone know if their teen-aged children are troubled. They don't want to let themselves know. A marketing and PR campaign that greatly expands the work of www.Save.org needs to broadcast daily the essence of the following message: “Do NOT define yourself by any past action nor by your body's changing reactions, nor by your children's or your parents' problems. Problems are temporary!” Teenagers' logic is hampered by the fact that their corpus colossi are not yet connected. They tend to think, "Because I did _________, I am _________. Such thinking can be countered as surely as current product ads get them to negatively compare themselves to a Brittney Spears or Johnny Depp norm. Peer pressure is powerful and too often negative. It takes repeated messages: slogans, pictures, stories, and poetry/songs aimed at kicking out self-doubts. Programs promoting self-esteem, though worthy in intent, are generally ineffective because most kids don't believe unearned praise. Repetitive advertising is effective. Believing is Seeing. People act on what they believe. They commit suicide based on their beliefs, not their lack of belief. An advertising campaign aimed at the community of SLO County, using hypnotic marketing methods currently selling politicians and products, could change the beliefs that keep parents silent and keep children from killing themselves with drugs, cars, guns, or razor blades. Let's poll our retirees. Evelyn Cole, author
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