Yes-- and no coincidence that suicides HERE are a large (and largely unspoken) problem as well.

We're a hot spot in a state which is known to have a high rate of adolescent mental health problems, basically. EVERYONE who isn't "in crisis" (meaning-- in need of hospitalization to prevent action on a suicide plan which is obviously in progress, not just imminent) gets to wait between 3 to 8 weeks for a first appointment with a mental health professional-- of any type, and with insurance and a referral from a medical professional. The demand for adolescent mental health services is still higher, and the waits are correspondingly LONGER. "Needs help managing stress" means you'll wait for about 12-20 weeks. That's not to see "the person of my choice" by the way-- that's to see ANYONE. The only people who get a fast pass are those who are involved with the court system.

The majority of my DD's friends have seen a mental health professional-- and some of them have been seen at urgent care/ER for what sure seems to me to be somatic stuff. It's a regular occurrence, honestly.

This is an area where the county population totals are about 100K, and where the high-school adolescent population is a bit tough to determine due to the university, but is probably estimable at ~3-4K, anyway... we regularly see 3-10 teen suicides annually here. REGULARLY. Each of the "high performance" public high schools has a couple a year. In a graduating class of less than 300 each, that's a LOT.

I'd estimate the "average" there during the decade-plus we've lived here is about 6 in the county each year. Some years less, some years more. It's a smallish group, and a tight community with a lot of active involvement-- this year alone already, my DD has known 2 of those kids, and she doesn't even go to the B&M schools with them, so she knows them purely through extracurriculars/community service. These are GOOD kids, not kids with "problems" per se. This is heartbreaking-- my daughter knows at least a dozen peers who have attempted suicide during their teens, some of them more than once. I've reported mental health problems repeatedly, and estimate that at least 90% of them are stress-related.

I think a lot of parents here pat themselves on the back that the number of teen suicides here is far less than the number of national merit scholars, and that therefore all is well. eek


If you try to get off of this "success track" with your kids, the entire system often conspires against you (as noted in the anecdote about my colleague's DD). Which brings me right back to--- I don't live in McLean, and outwardly, my community would SEEM to have quite little in common with it... but I recognized what this author was saying. A lot of what she was saying.

Most towns have the "honors student" bumper stickers-- for reference, my town has "My child won the Nobel Prize." That kid was a public school student here. Really. It's that kind of town-- but I don't think it's unique anymore.

We're not even the HIGHEST pressure zip code in the state, honestly.



Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.