If you are parenting a foster or adopted child who was abused, you will likely have to deal with your child’s struggles with suicidal urges. Of course, this is not true of every single abused child, but the vast majority of child abuse survivors do at least consider suicide at some point in their lives, so you need to think about the issue of suicide if you are parenting an abused child.

In my opinion, society has given suicidal urges a bad rap. No, I am not proposing that we all go out and celebrate suicide, nor do I think suicide should be encouraged. What I am saying is that most abused children do struggle with suicidal urges – enough that I would say that considering suicide is a “normal” aftereffect of child abuse. Therefore, to tell an abused child that he is “sinning” and “wrong” to think about suicide is to heap additional guilt on someone who is already hurting very deeply. That very guilt could be what puts some traumatized children over the edge, causing the suicidal urges to move from thoughts into deeds.