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. Q. My 17-year-old daughter tried to end her life. She came into my ., bedroom last week and showed me an empty bottle of sleeping pills she purchased herself without pres cription at our local drugstore. She told me she had taken all of them about a half hour earlier. I rushed her to the hospital. For a while we did not .know if she would live or die. The following day she told me she didn't want to live because her boyfriend had begun to flirt with other girls. She felt she was a fail ure in school and wanted to get away from having to decide what to do when she graduates. She and her boyfriend have made up, but her dad and I still feel uneasy. Is there something we should be doing to prevent a rec urrence? - Indiana. You are correct to be concerned. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in the teen and young adult age groups, right behind automobile accidents. You acted quickly and wisely in taking your daughter to the hospi· taJ. If there is any question whether a lethal dose has been taken, the stomach should be emptied as soon as possible and certainly within one hour after the overdose.
Obviously, at that time, one needs to determine quickly what has been taken and how much. Your family physician or poison control center can then tell you how dangerous the medical situa tion is and whether immediate medical treatment is necessary. The next step may be obvious, but too often forgotten. I would clean out your daughter's room and dresser drawers of any tran quilizers, diet pills, other pills or sharp instruments. You can be quite open about this, and she may object, but it is a sensible pre caution.. After a suicide attempt, it is wise to see that the person has company for the next week or so. The com panionship. is not necessarily to generate· communication or deep talks, but a rather obvious pre ventive. I would try to limit your daugh ter's alcohol consumption during this period. Alcohol is a depres sant. On top of an already existing blue mood, alcohol can intensify feelings of hopelessness. You say you feel uneasy around her now. I understand that, but you must not pussyfoot. She is not a hothouse plant. If you treat her like one, she will feel demeaned. Be direct and adult with her. Suicide cannot be a taboo topic. If
you are concerned she might make another attempt, address this con cern directly with her. 'Don't be afraid to continue your usual dis cipline in other areas. Your daughter might try to use the threat of suicide to get her way. "I need to stay out extra late tonight. I have to talk with my friends because I feel depressed and I want to die, and you don't even care." In such cases, try to treat thecurfew issue objectively, while ignoring her thinly veiled threat. Finally, your daughter needs to see a psychologist or so~ial worker at this time to address such issues as her self-image, her career plans, her relationship with her boyfriend and her thoughts about death. While family is important and your family may be close, your daughter may need the perspective of a trained outsider. Throughout all this, continue to be supportive and accepting of your daughter as she goes through a very difficult time. Reader questions on family liv ing and child care to be answered in print are' invited. Address the Kennys, Box 872, St. Joseph's College, Rensselaer, Ind. 47978.
A moral issue?
By Antoinette Bosco "Cigarettes are the most adver tised commodity in the United States,"'stated the March issue of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter. The article also pointed out some grim facts, including: - In spite of some claims by spokespersons for the tobacco industry, the "main point is rock soli~: as a group, cigarette smok ers die earlier than nonsmokers." - 300,000 deaths a year are caused by cigarettes. - Almost all cigarette smokers begin the habit between the ages of 12 and 18. Why so many people still ignore the plain, sad fact that smoking shortens their life is hard to say. But health professionals point to two major reasons: the sheer avail .abilty of cigarettes and the lure of advertising which glamorizes smok ing to sell cigarettes. I was unaware of how pervasive the problem of cigarette advertis ing is until I read a special report in the New England Journal of Med icine by Kenneth Warner of the University of Michigan school of public health. The report states that the issue at stake is not that of public and private health. It is one of money~ Advertising supports the media and cigarette advertising is exten sive. The American Cancer Society states that six American tobacco companies spend $1.5 billion annual ly to advertise cigarettes. This amount is considerably more than' the American Cancer Society spends on cancer research.. Warner writes that the "media's
dependence on revenue from cigar
ette advertising has repeatedly led
to suppression of discussion· of
smoking and health matters in
publications."
He goes on to say that journal ists have identified the influence of .reve!1~~ from tobacco advertise-
ments as "the most shameful money induced censorship of the Ameri can new media. " Warner suggests that the incom patibility between freedom of the press and massive cigarette adver tising should be "a preeminept , 'concern in the profession of jour nalism." I agree with Warner. Recently, an advisory council to the govern ment's National Insti'tute on Drug Abuse urged the'Reagan adminis tration to propose legislation to "totally eliminate. the advertising and promotion of cigarettes in the . United States." A response came immediately from the Tobacco Institute through a spokesman named William Kloep fer. He called the proposal "ex tremely ill advised" and maintained that the role of advertising is not to attract non-smokers but to keep brand loyalty among smokers. The huge budgets assigned by cigarette companies' tei promote their product put his comment into question. If the tobacco companies had consciences, they would be research ing harder to find alternate pro~ ducts to make from tobacco. Recently William Cahan, a sur geon at the Memorial Sloan-Ketter ing Cancer Center, pointed out the damage from smoking to the fetus
Farm tax aid DES MOINES, Iowa (NC) Saying the current tax code bene fits people who hold "more than their just share of the world's goods}" the National Catholic Rural Life Conference has re commended tax law changes to assist the operators of moderate size family farms. Among changes the NCRLC advocates are re strictions on agricultural tax shelters and writeoffs that allow wealthy nonfarmers to reap the gains of farming.
in pregnancy and to children who inhale smoke from being in the same room as cigarette smokers. ·Canan said: "In view ofthe fact that over SO million Americans smoke, this form of abuse may well be the most pervasive and child damaging of aiI.-" I think that we're dealing with a moral issue here. And I don't. know why we've been so timid to speak out on it. We ought to find the courage to do more than raise our eyebrows about the seductive imagery in cigarette advertising. We ought to work for the legal restriction of cigarette advertising.
Mexican bishops urge rich to share (NC) - Six southern Mexican bishops have urged the rich to share more than their "leftovers" with the poor. In a pastoral letter titled "Evan gelization and Worldly Goods," the bishops said that "all things have their origins in God and have been made for the s~rvice of man, and the rich are only administra tors of those goods. " The letter referred to the often harsh judgment of the rich in the Bible. It said that while the final judgment follows death, there is also judgment in life of the eco-' nomically powerful. "On many occasions, Christ advised that unshared wealth im plies a denial of the kingdom of God, of the poor and of salva tion," it said. "N 0 one can serve two masters," the bishops' letter said. It said that Christ asked the rich for total shar ing with the poor, not just occa sional charity. The 18-page document is believed to be the first in the- Mexican church to be directed specifically at the upper and upper-middle classes. .
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