Heidi Swapp lost her 16 year old son to suicide. At a younger age her son suffered a serious concussion and things spiraled from there. He suffered from depression and feelings of inadequacy and was seeing a therapist at the time.
Heidi now spends some of her time openly talking to parents about suicide and depression and the effects it has had on their family. She is open and honest and her story is full of hope.
This Deseret News article talks about what kind of boy Cory was and the events leading up to his death as well as the hope their family holds on to.
The KUTV article talks about our role as parents and how we can help our kids. In the article Swapp said:
“when kids are in crisis, they need parents to be like first responders , not first reactors.
She said if a firefighter or other first responder freaked out in response to someone’s call for help, the victim wouldn’t trust the first responder to help them.
It’s the same with parenting.
If parents respond to a child’s crisis — bad grades, school suspension, drugs, depression — by freaking out, the child will not trust the parent to help solve his or her problems.
“As parents we can stay calm and be reassuring even when they’ve done things that disappoint us,” she said.”
These two articles are well worth the read.
