When children are young， parents marvel at their every little accomplishment—school recitations， 24)runner-up prize in swimming. But then a day comes when all these mean nothing. The only 25)premium is in 26)topping the class. “I come across scores of children whose every waking hour is crammed with study-related activities，” he adds. “Everything else that they could do well—sport， music， painting—is pushed to the past. The damage this can do to a child’s self-esteem is enormous. Failure is a word that gives students continuous nightmares. After all， parents don’t give them 27)credit for any activity they excel in， besides studies.” No wonder March to July is the year’s cruellest 28)stretch. With29)boards， college and competitive exams clustered around this time of the year， the pressure to excel can be 30)lethal. There is evidence to suggest that suicides or suicidal behaviour peak around this time.
Strangely enough， in most cases， family members remain unaware of the 31)inchoate emotional forces running 32)rampant in adolescent minds. Shekhar Sheshadri of NIMHANS says， “This is one of the major reasons why suicide rates are so high. Parents often don’t 33)pick up the signs of disorders when the child 34)internalizes problems and gets 35)bogged down by anxiety， 36)phobias， and academic and socialisation 37)plights.” Any of these may cause a susceptible person to break down and slide into depression.
School is the other control factor determining the ups and downs of teen lives. On April 4， 2008， a 12-year-old student in 38)Mumbai， tried to kill herself by jumping on the railway track from a 39)flyover. Reason？ She had 40)been caught copying red-handed by a teacher the previous day. Her parents were summoned to the school and she was not allowed to take the English examination. The next day， she was 41)barred from sitting for other exams as well， despite 42)profuse pleading and apologies. She returned home and later in the afternoon tried to 43)scale the wall to end her life. Worse， the person who rescued the 44)distraught girl was 45)rebuffed by the school for taking her over to them. New research by AIIMS， 46)probing the teen mind， 47)throws up “school refusal” as a classic cause for adolescent depression.
48)Medics tell parents to look for dramatic changes in behaviour or appearance， in weight， and in school performance. Any talk about wanting to die or committing suicide should make a parent go on red alert. Yet many families are 49)loath to discuss the topic with their children. “There is this notion about depression， and certainly about suicide， that if you ask or mention the subject， you’re going to make it happen，” says Sheshadri. Quite the contrary； talking with a son or daughter about dark feelings will help 50)assuage the sense of hopelessness the child may have.