I was recently surfing the internet when I saw a shocking headline. A thirteen-year-old girl had committed suicide due to a broken internet relationship. This girl had been sending instant messages to a young boy named Josh. After weeks and weeks of sharing all her secrets with this wonderful friend he told her that he did not want to be her friend because he had heard that she did not treat her friends well. She hung herself in her bedroom.
As it turns out there was never a boy named Josh, there was only a former friend, the friends mother and another neighbor. These three had created the boy to trick the girl. The mother said that she was involved because she wanted to know what the dead girl was saying about her own daughter on line.
Many of us have let the computer become a friend to our bipolar child. As I am sure this girls parents did the same. My own child spends a lot of time talking to friends on line. I had not thought about how susceptible he might be to a situation such as this. We all warn our children about pedophiles and adults that might pretend to be kids. I had never considered warning my child about other children. Yet he is probably much more likely to be harmed by a friend than a stranger. Bipolar children have such hostile and fluctuating tempers that they often anger other students without even realizing it.
When a child like mine and like this girl who choose to take her own life finally make a friend, weather it be on line or in life, they often devote themselves so totally to that person that the loss of that person can be overwhelming and unbearable. Bipolar children and teens never do anything half way. What does that leave when things change? We can hope that we have given them the coping mechanisms but that is not always the case.
What will I do differently having read this story? I will spend a little more time with my son so I have a better idea who he is speaking to on line. I will tell him about this young girl and discuss why she did not have to die. I would advise all of you to do the same.
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