another it's the depression not the drug article promoting more treatment....

[Guest guest]

These articles really burn me up.....pure pharma advertising. Not one mention

that Lexapro can cause

suicide.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/oct04/271208.asp

Fighting depression's stigma

Family and donor turn Madeline Sherlock's suicide into a wake-up call for

Ozaukee County

By MARK JOHNSON

markjohnson@...

Posted: Oct. 31, 2004

Risk factors: Recent loss of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, accident or

medical illness. Access to firearms, pills or other potentially lethal

materials. Past history of attempted suicide. Psychiatric disorders.

Impulsiveness: chronic rage, anger, hopelessness, guilt. Lack of social support:

isolation, barriers preventing access to mental health or substance abuse

treatment. Suicide exposure: The loss of a friend, classmate, family member

through suicide, or dramatic media coverage of suicide.

Warning signs: Making verbal threats. Talking about death or suicide. Losing

interest in hobbies, work, school. Withdrawing from friends and family. Taking

unnecessary risks, increasing drug or alcohol use. Giving away treasured

possessions or making final arrangements.

How to help: Be direct and open when talking with someone who is exhibiting

suicide warning signs or threatening suicide. Be willing to listen. Allow the

person to express painful feelings. Offer hope. Let the person know that there

are alternatives and that you will help find support. Take action. Remove means,

such as guns or stockpiled pills. Do not be sworn to secrecy. Get help as soon

as possible.

Madeline Sherlock wrote those words in fourth grade, the opening sentence of a

three-page autobiography, and when her parents read them now they recall fond

memories that are painfully hard to square with the sad, disengaged teenager

Madeline became.

Madeline, who eventually struggled with depression, was in good company, the

Sherlocks say.

When Tim and Deb Sherlock moved from Minnesota to Cedarburg four years ago, they

were surprised by the number of friends their daughter met who had been

diagnosed with depression and were taking medications.

" As time went on you knew about more people and it was very disturbing, " says

Madeline's mother, Deb Sherlock. " I felt like I was living someplace that was

very sick. What do they need to have happen before somebody acts? "

Today a serious discussion of depression among teenagers in Cedarburg and

throughout Ozaukee County is under way. An anonymous benefactor from Ozaukee

County has made a multiyear commitment to provide thousands of dollars for

programs to battle depression and suicide among children.

One of the programs, a support group for teens, met for the first time last

month, and more than a dozen teens discussed the community's need to address

depression and provide more help. It was a discussion tinged by grief.

Over the summer, Madeline, a sensitive, curly-haired young woman who loved ice

hockey and agonized over the problems of her friends, took her own life. Only

two weeks earlier she had begun taking an anti-depressant medication.

She died two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.

Acknowledging depression, suicide

Nationwide, suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15- to

24-year-olds.

But how widespread depression and suicidal behavior are among Madeline's peers

in Ozaukee County isn't clear.

" It's not greatly talked about, but there's a decent number of people who are

depressed, " says Jordan Westplate, an 18-year-old senior at Cedarburg High

School and friend of Madeline Sherlock. " I think it's definitely more of a

hidden thing than something people talk openly about. "

Ozaukee County Coroner R. Holicek said there were 14 suicides in 2003 and

five so far this year; one involved a teenager. But those numbers include only

people who killed themselves within the county's borders. Madeline died in

Glendale in Milwaukee County.

In 2003, Ozaukee County also recorded 233 involuntary hospitalizations,

instances in which people were sent to the hospital after police determined they

were a threat to themselves or others. Perhaps 25% involved adolescents, says

Joan Kojis, the county's mental health and drug and alcohol program coordinator.

At Cedarburg High School, where Madeline would have been a senior this year,

there have been signs of a problem, or at least the perception of one.

Students speak of a " senior curse. " Seven seniors have died in the last seven

years, at least two by suicide.

" We have at least one senior die every year, " says Weatherhogg, a

17-year-old senior who was a close friend of Madeline's. " It's just this idea

that kids are waiting for the next person and they're scared. Who's going to die

next? "

Jan Chapman, director of pupil services and special education for the Cedarburg

district, says the so-called senior curse is more media invention than truth.

" Do I think we have a higher prevalence? No. I think it's just more publicized, "

she said.

Sorensen, a school psychologist in the district, stresses that

depression among teens " is not just a school issue, it's a community issue. I

don't have all the answers. You, as a community member, don't have all the

answers. Clergy don't have all the answers. Hopefully we can work on this

together. "

Any collective effort, however, must overcome several barriers, including the

powerful stigma that keeps people from discussing depression and suicide.

" Society at large doesn't want to acknowledge suicide, " says Dan t,

executive director of Youth and Family Project Inc., the group running the new

support group for teenagers. " There is still that idea that if you talk about

suicide with teens you are putting that idea in their heads. That is a barrier

to open and honest communication. "

Tighter school and social service budgets have also made it harder to address

the problem, forcing counselors to focus more on crisis work and less on

prevention.

Perhaps the greatest barrier is the reluctance of many teenagers to discuss

depression with adult counselors.

" I don't think I'd be comfortable talking to a school psychologist or

counselor, " Westplate says. " I don't know of any way that people would go and

say, 'I'm depressed.' "

Depression surfaces slowly

Friends of Madeline say that she seldom, if ever, talked about her depression.

" We had no idea, " Weatherhogg says. " At that point in time she was the most

energetic person. She always cared about her friends so much. "

She recalls accompanying Madeline to the funeral of another Cedarburg student in

2003, a young man who had taken his own life.

" She said, 'I can't believe he would do this. Look how many people he hurt,' "

Weatherhogg says.

Since Madeline's death, friends and family have sifted through their memories

for clues to her illness.

Tim and Deb Sherlock remember the happy girl their daughter was: long, curly

hair, hazel eyes, a smile from ear to ear, a song seemingly always on her lips.

She had boundless energy. She was not cautious, learning to ride a bicycle

before her big sister, Evan, who is four years her senior.

Madeline was mischievous, but also empathetic and sensitive. She did not excel

in academics, which was difficult in a school district that emphasized

achievement, her parents say.

The Sherlock family had no history of depression. Nor did they have an inkling

that Madeline suffered from the illness until her final year.

In the summer of 2003, Deb's mother died. Madeline had been very close to her

grandmother and took the loss hard.

That fall, a close friend was badly injured in an auto accident. Madeline had

seen her friend earlier that night and blamed herself for not stopping the

friend from driving.

Madeline's mother, who had been through a similar experience in her youth,

thought she understood her daughter's self-reproach.

" I told her I remember feeling very responsible and guilty, " Deb Sherlock says.

" It's very hard going through life without having done something you deeply

regret and wish you'd done differently. "

Madeline's parents and friends told her repeatedly, " It wasn't your fault. " But

Madeline insisted, " No, it was my fault. "

Eventually, she stopped talking about the accident.

She let things slip: household chores, grades. She had a hard time even staying

in school for the day, though she desperately wanted to graduate with her class.

" It just got worse and worse, and I went, 'OK, we need to get her some help,' "

her mother says.

About three months after the auto accident, Madeline began seeing a therapist

once a week, but her slide continued.

" He did not know what was wrong with her, " Deb Sherlock says. " He was a very

nice person and she liked talking to him, but I don't think he had a clue. "

Twice Madeline ran away from home.

There were still good times, nights when her father was out of town and Madeline

would crawl into bed with her mother, nights when they all went out to dinner

and she couldn't stop hugging mom and dad. In some ways, that made the bad times

harder.

Sparkplug of team

Tim Sherlock saw his daughter disengage from all of the activities she loved.

Ice hockey, he says, was the one exception.

She played for the under-19 Ozaukee Ice Dogs, a spirited group of young women

who had far more fun than talent.

" They'd get slaughtered, " says team manager Beth Shully, " and they'd drop the

sticks in the middle of the game and just start dancing. "

Madeline was the sparkplug. Around teammates, she kept her sorrow and detachment

in check.

" They really only saw the vivacious side of her up until the last week or so, "

Shully says.

Two weeks before her death she was diagnosed with depression after seeing a new

therapist. She was put on Lexapro, an anti-depressant. She told friends the

medication was helping.

But the pills made her feel lethargic, and adjusting the dosage didn't seem to

work. Her mood shifted wildly.

On July 21, Tim Sherlock drove his daughter to summer school. She seemed

lethargic and he gave her his best pep talk. He told her she could fight her way

out of this rut. She shouldn't let the opinions of others affect her.

" I know, " she said. Her voice sounded flat, disengaged.

Deb Sherlock spoke to her daughter around 6 p.m. Madeline didn't sound good. Her

mother asked her to come home, but she didn't.

That night Madeline went to a get-together with friends at a house in Glendale.

She was very quiet and kept slipping away to make calls on a friend's cell

phone. After 15 minutes, her friends worried, went looking for her and found

her.

Later, she disappeared again, and this time her friends could not find her. They

called the Sherlocks and the police.

The next morning Madeline was found in a yard not far from the home she had been

visiting.

The Sherlocks would not say how their daughter killed herself.

" She didn't do something that could fail, " Deb Sherlock says. " She was very

intent. "

The Sherlocks struggled to understand their daughter's death.

They learned that Madeline had not been calling people as a cry for help.

Apparently, she had already decided what to do, and was only searching for the

means to do it.

After her death, Madeline's hockey teammates wore her number 9 on the sleeves of

their team jerseys. Friends came to the Sherlock home and talked and cried and

hugged.

But others in the community, whom the Sherlocks had expected to reach out, drew

back instead.After witnessing the way some responded, the Sherlocks wanted to be

sure children who needed help would not be pushed away, but rather drawn closer

and embraced.

Their hopes were bolstered when the anonymous benefactor, who had seen Madeline

play hockey, came forward. In early August the benefactor approached G.

Stein, who runs Strategies for Philanthropy.

As a result, Maddie's Fund for Teen Health has been established. Among other

programs, the fund will pay for the new support group, and a mass mailing of

postcards with warning signs and suicide prevention resources. The postcards

will be sent to every home in Ozaukee County with a child between 10 and 18.

Imagining her future

Back in fourth grade, when Madeline Sherlock and her classmates wrote their

autobiographies, they were asked to imagine the future. Madeline anticipated

some hard times ahead:

High school is so hard. When I think back to when I was in fifth grade,

sometimes I wish I was there.

But she saw herself making it through the tough times. She wrote of getting into

college, studying to be a reporter and working in a clothing store at the mall.

She ended her autobiography in the middle of the life she imagined for herself.

Ring, ring! I pick up the phone. It's Jill my news reporter partner. She says

that Sue was just found murdered this morning. I'll be right down, I

say.

From the Nov. 1, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now.

[Guest guest]

These articles really burn me up.....pure pharma advertising. Not one mention

that Lexapro can cause

suicide.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/oct04/271208.asp

Fighting depression's stigma

Family and donor turn Madeline Sherlock's suicide into a wake-up call for

Ozaukee County

By MARK JOHNSON

markjohnson@...

Posted: Oct. 31, 2004

Risk factors: Recent loss of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, accident or

medical illness. Access to firearms, pills or other potentially lethal

materials. Past history of attempted suicide. Psychiatric disorders.

Impulsiveness: chronic rage, anger, hopelessness, guilt. Lack of social support:

isolation, barriers preventing access to mental health or substance abuse

treatment. Suicide exposure: The loss of a friend, classmate, family member

through suicide, or dramatic media coverage of suicide.

Warning signs: Making verbal threats. Talking about death or suicide. Losing

interest in hobbies, work, school. Withdrawing from friends and family. Taking

unnecessary risks, increasing drug or alcohol use. Giving away treasured

possessions or making final arrangements.

How to help: Be direct and open when talking with someone who is exhibiting

suicide warning signs or threatening suicide. Be willing to listen. Allow the

person to express painful feelings. Offer hope. Let the person know that there

are alternatives and that you will help find support. Take action. Remove means,

such as guns or stockpiled pills. Do not be sworn to secrecy. Get help as soon

as possible.

Madeline Sherlock wrote those words in fourth grade, the opening sentence of a

three-page autobiography, and when her parents read them now they recall fond

memories that are painfully hard to square with the sad, disengaged teenager

Madeline became.

Madeline, who eventually struggled with depression, was in good company, the

Sherlocks say.

When Tim and Deb Sherlock moved from Minnesota to Cedarburg four years ago, they

were surprised by the number of friends their daughter met who had been

diagnosed with depression and were taking medications.

" As time went on you knew about more people and it was very disturbing, " says

Madeline's mother, Deb Sherlock. " I felt like I was living someplace that was

very sick. What do they need to have happen before somebody acts? "

Today a serious discussion of depression among teenagers in Cedarburg and

throughout Ozaukee County is under way. An anonymous benefactor from Ozaukee

County has made a multiyear commitment to provide thousands of dollars for

programs to battle depression and suicide among children.

One of the programs, a support group for teens, met for the first time last

month, and more than a dozen teens discussed the community's need to address

depression and provide more help. It was a discussion tinged by grief.

Over the summer, Madeline, a sensitive, curly-haired young woman who loved ice

hockey and agonized over the problems of her friends, took her own life. Only

two weeks earlier she had begun taking an anti-depressant medication.

She died two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.

Acknowledging depression, suicide

Nationwide, suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15- to

24-year-olds.

But how widespread depression and suicidal behavior are among Madeline's peers

in Ozaukee County isn't clear.

" It's not greatly talked about, but there's a decent number of people who are

depressed, " says Jordan Westplate, an 18-year-old senior at Cedarburg High

School and friend of Madeline Sherlock. " I think it's definitely more of a

hidden thing than something people talk openly about. "

Ozaukee County Coroner R. Holicek said there were 14 suicides in 2003 and

five so far this year; one involved a teenager. But those numbers include only

people who killed themselves within the county's borders. Madeline died in

Glendale in Milwaukee County.

In 2003, Ozaukee County also recorded 233 involuntary hospitalizations,

instances in which people were sent to the hospital after police determined they

were a threat to themselves or others. Perhaps 25% involved adolescents, says

Joan Kojis, the county's mental health and drug and alcohol program coordinator.

At Cedarburg High School, where Madeline would have been a senior this year,

there have been signs of a problem, or at least the perception of one.

Students speak of a " senior curse. " Seven seniors have died in the last seven

years, at least two by suicide.

" We have at least one senior die every year, " says Weatherhogg, a

17-year-old senior who was a close friend of Madeline's. " It's just this idea

that kids are waiting for the next person and they're scared. Who's going to die

next? "

Jan Chapman, director of pupil services and special education for the Cedarburg

district, says the so-called senior curse is more media invention than truth.

" Do I think we have a higher prevalence? No. I think it's just more publicized, "

she said.

Sorensen, a school psychologist in the district, stresses that

depression among teens " is not just a school issue, it's a community issue. I

don't have all the answers. You, as a community member, don't have all the

answers. Clergy don't have all the answers. Hopefully we can work on this

together. "

Any collective effort, however, must overcome several barriers, including the

powerful stigma that keeps people from discussing depression and suicide.

" Society at large doesn't want to acknowledge suicide, " says Dan t,

executive director of Youth and Family Project Inc., the group running the new

support group for teenagers. " There is still that idea that if you talk about

suicide with teens you are putting that idea in their heads. That is a barrier

to open and honest communication. "

Tighter school and social service budgets have also made it harder to address

the problem, forcing counselors to focus more on crisis work and less on

prevention.

Perhaps the greatest barrier is the reluctance of many teenagers to discuss

depression with adult counselors.

" I don't think I'd be comfortable talking to a school psychologist or

counselor, " Westplate says. " I don't know of any way that people would go and

say, 'I'm depressed.' "

Depression surfaces slowly

Friends of Madeline say that she seldom, if ever, talked about her depression.

" We had no idea, " Weatherhogg says. " At that point in time she was the most

energetic person. She always cared about her friends so much. "

She recalls accompanying Madeline to the funeral of another Cedarburg student in

2003, a young man who had taken his own life.

" She said, 'I can't believe he would do this. Look how many people he hurt,' "

Weatherhogg says.

Since Madeline's death, friends and family have sifted through their memories

for clues to her illness.

Tim and Deb Sherlock remember the happy girl their daughter was: long, curly

hair, hazel eyes, a smile from ear to ear, a song seemingly always on her lips.

She had boundless energy. She was not cautious, learning to ride a bicycle

before her big sister, Evan, who is four years her senior.

Madeline was mischievous, but also empathetic and sensitive. She did not excel

in academics, which was difficult in a school district that emphasized

achievement, her parents say.

The Sherlock family had no history of depression. Nor did they have an inkling

that Madeline suffered from the illness until her final year.

In the summer of 2003, Deb's mother died. Madeline had been very close to her

grandmother and took the loss hard.

That fall, a close friend was badly injured in an auto accident. Madeline had

seen her friend earlier that night and blamed herself for not stopping the

friend from driving.

Madeline's mother, who had been through a similar experience in her youth,

thought she understood her daughter's self-reproach.

" I told her I remember feeling very responsible and guilty, " Deb Sherlock says.

" It's very hard going through life without having done something you deeply

regret and wish you'd done differently. "

Madeline's parents and friends told her repeatedly, " It wasn't your fault. " But

Madeline insisted, " No, it was my fault. "

Eventually, she stopped talking about the accident.

She let things slip: household chores, grades. She had a hard time even staying

in school for the day, though she desperately wanted to graduate with her class.

" It just got worse and worse, and I went, 'OK, we need to get her some help,' "

her mother says.

About three months after the auto accident, Madeline began seeing a therapist

once a week, but her slide continued.

" He did not know what was wrong with her, " Deb Sherlock says. " He was a very

nice person and she liked talking to him, but I don't think he had a clue. "

Twice Madeline ran away from home.

There were still good times, nights when her father was out of town and Madeline

would crawl into bed with her mother, nights when they all went out to dinner

and she couldn't stop hugging mom and dad. In some ways, that made the bad times

harder.

Sparkplug of team

Tim Sherlock saw his daughter disengage from all of the activities she loved.

Ice hockey, he says, was the one exception.

She played for the under-19 Ozaukee Ice Dogs, a spirited group of young women

who had far more fun than talent.

" They'd get slaughtered, " says team manager Beth Shully, " and they'd drop the

sticks in the middle of the game and just start dancing. "

Madeline was the sparkplug. Around teammates, she kept her sorrow and detachment

in check.

" They really only saw the vivacious side of her up until the last week or so, "

Shully says.

Two weeks before her death she was diagnosed with depression after seeing a new

therapist. She was put on Lexapro, an anti-depressant. She told friends the

medication was helping.

But the pills made her feel lethargic, and adjusting the dosage didn't seem to

work. Her mood shifted wildly.

On July 21, Tim Sherlock drove his daughter to summer school. She seemed

lethargic and he gave her his best pep talk. He told her she could fight her way

out of this rut. She shouldn't let the opinions of others affect her.

" I know, " she said. Her voice sounded flat, disengaged.

Deb Sherlock spoke to her daughter around 6 p.m. Madeline didn't sound good. Her

mother asked her to come home, but she didn't.

That night Madeline went to a get-together with friends at a house in Glendale.

She was very quiet and kept slipping away to make calls on a friend's cell

phone. After 15 minutes, her friends worried, went looking for her and found

her.

Later, she disappeared again, and this time her friends could not find her. They

called the Sherlocks and the police.

The next morning Madeline was found in a yard not far from the home she had been

visiting.

The Sherlocks would not say how their daughter killed herself.

" She didn't do something that could fail, " Deb Sherlock says. " She was very

intent. "

The Sherlocks struggled to understand their daughter's death.

They learned that Madeline had not been calling people as a cry for help.

Apparently, she had already decided what to do, and was only searching for the

means to do it.

After her death, Madeline's hockey teammates wore her number 9 on the sleeves of

their team jerseys. Friends came to the Sherlock home and talked and cried and

hugged.

But others in the community, whom the Sherlocks had expected to reach out, drew

back instead.After witnessing the way some responded, the Sherlocks wanted to be

sure children who needed help would not be pushed away, but rather drawn closer

and embraced.

Their hopes were bolstered when the anonymous benefactor, who had seen Madeline

play hockey, came forward. In early August the benefactor approached G.

Stein, who runs Strategies for Philanthropy.

As a result, Maddie's Fund for Teen Health has been established. Among other

programs, the fund will pay for the new support group, and a mass mailing of

postcards with warning signs and suicide prevention resources. The postcards

will be sent to every home in Ozaukee County with a child between 10 and 18.

Imagining her future

Back in fourth grade, when Madeline Sherlock and her classmates wrote their

autobiographies, they were asked to imagine the future. Madeline anticipated

some hard times ahead:

High school is so hard. When I think back to when I was in fifth grade,

sometimes I wish I was there.

But she saw herself making it through the tough times. She wrote of getting into

college, studying to be a reporter and working in a clothing store at the mall.

She ended her autobiography in the middle of the life she imagined for herself.

Ring, ring! I pick up the phone. It's Jill my news reporter partner. She says

that Sue was just found murdered this morning. I'll be right down, I

say.

From the Nov. 1, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now.

[Guest guest]

These articles really burn me up.....pure pharma advertising. Not one mention

that Lexapro can cause

suicide.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/oct04/271208.asp

Fighting depression's stigma

Family and donor turn Madeline Sherlock's suicide into a wake-up call for

Ozaukee County

By MARK JOHNSON

markjohnson@...

Posted: Oct. 31, 2004

Risk factors: Recent loss of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, accident or

medical illness. Access to firearms, pills or other potentially lethal

materials. Past history of attempted suicide. Psychiatric disorders.

Impulsiveness: chronic rage, anger, hopelessness, guilt. Lack of social support:

isolation, barriers preventing access to mental health or substance abuse

treatment. Suicide exposure: The loss of a friend, classmate, family member

through suicide, or dramatic media coverage of suicide.

Warning signs: Making verbal threats. Talking about death or suicide. Losing

interest in hobbies, work, school. Withdrawing from friends and family. Taking

unnecessary risks, increasing drug or alcohol use. Giving away treasured

possessions or making final arrangements.

How to help: Be direct and open when talking with someone who is exhibiting

suicide warning signs or threatening suicide. Be willing to listen. Allow the

person to express painful feelings. Offer hope. Let the person know that there

are alternatives and that you will help find support. Take action. Remove means,

such as guns or stockpiled pills. Do not be sworn to secrecy. Get help as soon

as possible.

Madeline Sherlock wrote those words in fourth grade, the opening sentence of a

three-page autobiography, and when her parents read them now they recall fond

memories that are painfully hard to square with the sad, disengaged teenager

Madeline became.

Madeline, who eventually struggled with depression, was in good company, the

Sherlocks say.

When Tim and Deb Sherlock moved from Minnesota to Cedarburg four years ago, they

were surprised by the number of friends their daughter met who had been

diagnosed with depression and were taking medications.

" As time went on you knew about more people and it was very disturbing, " says

Madeline's mother, Deb Sherlock. " I felt like I was living someplace that was

very sick. What do they need to have happen before somebody acts? "

Today a serious discussion of depression among teenagers in Cedarburg and

throughout Ozaukee County is under way. An anonymous benefactor from Ozaukee

County has made a multiyear commitment to provide thousands of dollars for

programs to battle depression and suicide among children.

One of the programs, a support group for teens, met for the first time last

month, and more than a dozen teens discussed the community's need to address

depression and provide more help. It was a discussion tinged by grief.

Over the summer, Madeline, a sensitive, curly-haired young woman who loved ice

hockey and agonized over the problems of her friends, took her own life. Only

two weeks earlier she had begun taking an anti-depressant medication.

She died two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.

Acknowledging depression, suicide

Nationwide, suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15- to

24-year-olds.

But how widespread depression and suicidal behavior are among Madeline's peers

in Ozaukee County isn't clear.

" It's not greatly talked about, but there's a decent number of people who are

depressed, " says Jordan Westplate, an 18-year-old senior at Cedarburg High

School and friend of Madeline Sherlock. " I think it's definitely more of a

hidden thing than something people talk openly about. "

Ozaukee County Coroner R. Holicek said there were 14 suicides in 2003 and

five so far this year; one involved a teenager. But those numbers include only

people who killed themselves within the county's borders. Madeline died in

Glendale in Milwaukee County.

In 2003, Ozaukee County also recorded 233 involuntary hospitalizations,

instances in which people were sent to the hospital after police determined they

were a threat to themselves or others. Perhaps 25% involved adolescents, says

Joan Kojis, the county's mental health and drug and alcohol program coordinator.

At Cedarburg High School, where Madeline would have been a senior this year,

there have been signs of a problem, or at least the perception of one.

Students speak of a " senior curse. " Seven seniors have died in the last seven

years, at least two by suicide.

" We have at least one senior die every year, " says Weatherhogg, a

17-year-old senior who was a close friend of Madeline's. " It's just this idea

that kids are waiting for the next person and they're scared. Who's going to die

next? "

Jan Chapman, director of pupil services and special education for the Cedarburg

district, says the so-called senior curse is more media invention than truth.

" Do I think we have a higher prevalence? No. I think it's just more publicized, "

she said.

Sorensen, a school psychologist in the district, stresses that

depression among teens " is not just a school issue, it's a community issue. I

don't have all the answers. You, as a community member, don't have all the

answers. Clergy don't have all the answers. Hopefully we can work on this

together. "

Any collective effort, however, must overcome several barriers, including the

powerful stigma that keeps people from discussing depression and suicide.

" Society at large doesn't want to acknowledge suicide, " says Dan t,

executive director of Youth and Family Project Inc., the group running the new

support group for teenagers. " There is still that idea that if you talk about

suicide with teens you are putting that idea in their heads. That is a barrier

to open and honest communication. "

Tighter school and social service budgets have also made it harder to address

the problem, forcing counselors to focus more on crisis work and less on

prevention.

Perhaps the greatest barrier is the reluctance of many teenagers to discuss

depression with adult counselors.

" I don't think I'd be comfortable talking to a school psychologist or

counselor, " Westplate says. " I don't know of any way that people would go and

say, 'I'm depressed.' "

Depression surfaces slowly

Friends of Madeline say that she seldom, if ever, talked about her depression.

" We had no idea, " Weatherhogg says. " At that point in time she was the most

energetic person. She always cared about her friends so much. "

She recalls accompanying Madeline to the funeral of another Cedarburg student in

2003, a young man who had taken his own life.

" She said, 'I can't believe he would do this. Look how many people he hurt,' "

Weatherhogg says.

Since Madeline's death, friends and family have sifted through their memories

for clues to her illness.

Tim and Deb Sherlock remember the happy girl their daughter was: long, curly

hair, hazel eyes, a smile from ear to ear, a song seemingly always on her lips.

She had boundless energy. She was not cautious, learning to ride a bicycle

before her big sister, Evan, who is four years her senior.

Madeline was mischievous, but also empathetic and sensitive. She did not excel

in academics, which was difficult in a school district that emphasized

achievement, her parents say.

The Sherlock family had no history of depression. Nor did they have an inkling

that Madeline suffered from the illness until her final year.

In the summer of 2003, Deb's mother died. Madeline had been very close to her

grandmother and took the loss hard.

That fall, a close friend was badly injured in an auto accident. Madeline had

seen her friend earlier that night and blamed herself for not stopping the

friend from driving.

Madeline's mother, who had been through a similar experience in her youth,

thought she understood her daughter's self-reproach.

" I told her I remember feeling very responsible and guilty, " Deb Sherlock says.

" It's very hard going through life without having done something you deeply

regret and wish you'd done differently. "

Madeline's parents and friends told her repeatedly, " It wasn't your fault. " But

Madeline insisted, " No, it was my fault. "

Eventually, she stopped talking about the accident.

She let things slip: household chores, grades. She had a hard time even staying

in school for the day, though she desperately wanted to graduate with her class.

" It just got worse and worse, and I went, 'OK, we need to get her some help,' "

her mother says.

About three months after the auto accident, Madeline began seeing a therapist

once a week, but her slide continued.

" He did not know what was wrong with her, " Deb Sherlock says. " He was a very

nice person and she liked talking to him, but I don't think he had a clue. "

Twice Madeline ran away from home.

There were still good times, nights when her father was out of town and Madeline

would crawl into bed with her mother, nights when they all went out to dinner

and she couldn't stop hugging mom and dad. In some ways, that made the bad times

harder.

Sparkplug of team

Tim Sherlock saw his daughter disengage from all of the activities she loved.

Ice hockey, he says, was the one exception.

She played for the under-19 Ozaukee Ice Dogs, a spirited group of young women

who had far more fun than talent.

" They'd get slaughtered, " says team manager Beth Shully, " and they'd drop the

sticks in the middle of the game and just start dancing. "

Madeline was the sparkplug. Around teammates, she kept her sorrow and detachment

in check.

" They really only saw the vivacious side of her up until the last week or so, "

Shully says.

Two weeks before her death she was diagnosed with depression after seeing a new

therapist. She was put on Lexapro, an anti-depressant. She told friends the

medication was helping.

But the pills made her feel lethargic, and adjusting the dosage didn't seem to

work. Her mood shifted wildly.

On July 21, Tim Sherlock drove his daughter to summer school. She seemed

lethargic and he gave her his best pep talk. He told her she could fight her way

out of this rut. She shouldn't let the opinions of others affect her.

" I know, " she said. Her voice sounded flat, disengaged.

Deb Sherlock spoke to her daughter around 6 p.m. Madeline didn't sound good. Her

mother asked her to come home, but she didn't.

That night Madeline went to a get-together with friends at a house in Glendale.

She was very quiet and kept slipping away to make calls on a friend's cell

phone. After 15 minutes, her friends worried, went looking for her and found

her.

Later, she disappeared again, and this time her friends could not find her. They

called the Sherlocks and the police.

The next morning Madeline was found in a yard not far from the home she had been

visiting.

The Sherlocks would not say how their daughter killed herself.

" She didn't do something that could fail, " Deb Sherlock says. " She was very

intent. "

The Sherlocks struggled to understand their daughter's death.

They learned that Madeline had not been calling people as a cry for help.

Apparently, she had already decided what to do, and was only searching for the

means to do it.

After her death, Madeline's hockey teammates wore her number 9 on the sleeves of

their team jerseys. Friends came to the Sherlock home and talked and cried and

hugged.

But others in the community, whom the Sherlocks had expected to reach out, drew

back instead.After witnessing the way some responded, the Sherlocks wanted to be

sure children who needed help would not be pushed away, but rather drawn closer

and embraced.

Their hopes were bolstered when the anonymous benefactor, who had seen Madeline

play hockey, came forward. In early August the benefactor approached G.

Stein, who runs Strategies for Philanthropy.

As a result, Maddie's Fund for Teen Health has been established. Among other

programs, the fund will pay for the new support group, and a mass mailing of

postcards with warning signs and suicide prevention resources. The postcards

will be sent to every home in Ozaukee County with a child between 10 and 18.

Imagining her future

Back in fourth grade, when Madeline Sherlock and her classmates wrote their

autobiographies, they were asked to imagine the future. Madeline anticipated

some hard times ahead:

High school is so hard. When I think back to when I was in fifth grade,

sometimes I wish I was there.

But she saw herself making it through the tough times. She wrote of getting into

college, studying to be a reporter and working in a clothing store at the mall.

She ended her autobiography in the middle of the life she imagined for herself.

Ring, ring! I pick up the phone. It's Jill my news reporter partner. She says

that Sue was just found murdered this morning. I'll be right down, I

say.

From the Nov. 1, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now.

[Guest guest]

These articles really burn me up.....pure pharma advertising. Not one mention

that Lexapro can cause

suicide.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/oct04/271208.asp

Fighting depression's stigma

Family and donor turn Madeline Sherlock's suicide into a wake-up call for

Ozaukee County

By MARK JOHNSON

markjohnson@...

Posted: Oct. 31, 2004

Risk factors: Recent loss of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, accident or

medical illness. Access to firearms, pills or other potentially lethal

materials. Past history of attempted suicide. Psychiatric disorders.

Impulsiveness: chronic rage, anger, hopelessness, guilt. Lack of social support:

isolation, barriers preventing access to mental health or substance abuse

treatment. Suicide exposure: The loss of a friend, classmate, family member

through suicide, or dramatic media coverage of suicide.

Warning signs: Making verbal threats. Talking about death or suicide. Losing

interest in hobbies, work, school. Withdrawing from friends and family. Taking

unnecessary risks, increasing drug or alcohol use. Giving away treasured

possessions or making final arrangements.

How to help: Be direct and open when talking with someone who is exhibiting

suicide warning signs or threatening suicide. Be willing to listen. Allow the

person to express painful feelings. Offer hope. Let the person know that there

are alternatives and that you will help find support. Take action. Remove means,

such as guns or stockpiled pills. Do not be sworn to secrecy. Get help as soon

as possible.

Madeline Sherlock wrote those words in fourth grade, the opening sentence of a

three-page autobiography, and when her parents read them now they recall fond

memories that are painfully hard to square with the sad, disengaged teenager

Madeline became.

Madeline, who eventually struggled with depression, was in good company, the

Sherlocks say.

When Tim and Deb Sherlock moved from Minnesota to Cedarburg four years ago, they

were surprised by the number of friends their daughter met who had been

diagnosed with depression and were taking medications.

" As time went on you knew about more people and it was very disturbing, " says

Madeline's mother, Deb Sherlock. " I felt like I was living someplace that was

very sick. What do they need to have happen before somebody acts? "

Today a serious discussion of depression among teenagers in Cedarburg and

throughout Ozaukee County is under way. An anonymous benefactor from Ozaukee

County has made a multiyear commitment to provide thousands of dollars for

programs to battle depression and suicide among children.

One of the programs, a support group for teens, met for the first time last

month, and more than a dozen teens discussed the community's need to address

depression and provide more help. It was a discussion tinged by grief.

Over the summer, Madeline, a sensitive, curly-haired young woman who loved ice

hockey and agonized over the problems of her friends, took her own life. Only

two weeks earlier she had begun taking an anti-depressant medication.

She died two weeks shy of her 18th birthday.

Acknowledging depression, suicide

Nationwide, suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15- to

24-year-olds.

But how widespread depression and suicidal behavior are among Madeline's peers

in Ozaukee County isn't clear.

" It's not greatly talked about, but there's a decent number of people who are

depressed, " says Jordan Westplate, an 18-year-old senior at Cedarburg High

School and friend of Madeline Sherlock. " I think it's definitely more of a

hidden thing than something people talk openly about. "

Ozaukee County Coroner R. Holicek said there were 14 suicides in 2003 and

five so far this year; one involved a teenager. But those numbers include only

people who killed themselves within the county's borders. Madeline died in

Glendale in Milwaukee County.

In 2003, Ozaukee County also recorded 233 involuntary hospitalizations,

instances in which people were sent to the hospital after police determined they

were a threat to themselves or others. Perhaps 25% involved adolescents, says

Joan Kojis, the county's mental health and drug and alcohol program coordinator.

At Cedarburg High School, where Madeline would have been a senior this year,

there have been signs of a problem, or at least the perception of one.

Students speak of a " senior curse. " Seven seniors have died in the last seven

years, at least two by suicide.

" We have at least one senior die every year, " says Weatherhogg, a

17-year-old senior who was a close friend of Madeline's. " It's just this idea

that kids are waiting for the next person and they're scared. Who's going to die

next? "

Jan Chapman, director of pupil services and special education for the Cedarburg

district, says the so-called senior curse is more media invention than truth.

" Do I think we have a higher prevalence? No. I think it's just more publicized, "

she said.

Sorensen, a school psychologist in the district, stresses that

depression among teens " is not just a school issue, it's a community issue. I

don't have all the answers. You, as a community member, don't have all the

answers. Clergy don't have all the answers. Hopefully we can work on this

together. "

Any collective effort, however, must overcome several barriers, including the

powerful stigma that keeps people from discussing depression and suicide.

" Society at large doesn't want to acknowledge suicide, " says Dan t,

executive director of Youth and Family Project Inc., the group running the new

support group for teenagers. " There is still that idea that if you talk about

suicide with teens you are putting that idea in their heads. That is a barrier

to open and honest communication. "

Tighter school and social service budgets have also made it harder to address

the problem, forcing counselors to focus more on crisis work and less on

prevention.

Perhaps the greatest barrier is the reluctance of many teenagers to discuss

depression with adult counselors.

" I don't think I'd be comfortable talking to a school psychologist or

counselor, " Westplate says. " I don't know of any way that people would go and

say, 'I'm depressed.' "

Depression surfaces slowly

Friends of Madeline say that she seldom, if ever, talked about her depression.

" We had no idea, " Weatherhogg says. " At that point in time she was the most

energetic person. She always cared about her friends so much. "

She recalls accompanying Madeline to the funeral of another Cedarburg student in

2003, a young man who had taken his own life.

" She said, 'I can't believe he would do this. Look how many people he hurt,' "

Weatherhogg says.

Since Madeline's death, friends and family have sifted through their memories

for clues to her illness.

Tim and Deb Sherlock remember the happy girl their daughter was: long, curly

hair, hazel eyes, a smile from ear to ear, a song seemingly always on her lips.

She had boundless energy. She was not cautious, learning to ride a bicycle

before her big sister, Evan, who is four years her senior.

Madeline was mischievous, but also empathetic and sensitive. She did not excel

in academics, which was difficult in a school district that emphasized

achievement, her parents say.

The Sherlock family had no history of depression. Nor did they have an inkling

that Madeline suffered from the illness until her final year.

In the summer of 2003, Deb's mother died. Madeline had been very close to her

grandmother and took the loss hard.

That fall, a close friend was badly injured in an auto accident. Madeline had

seen her friend earlier that night and blamed herself for not stopping the

friend from driving.

Madeline's mother, who had been through a similar experience in her youth,

thought she understood her daughter's self-reproach.

" I told her I remember feeling very responsible and guilty, " Deb Sherlock says.

" It's very hard going through life without having done something you deeply

regret and wish you'd done differently. "

Madeline's parents and friends told her repeatedly, " It wasn't your fault. " But

Madeline insisted, " No, it was my fault. "

Eventually, she stopped talking about the accident.

She let things slip: household chores, grades. She had a hard time even staying

in school for the day, though she desperately wanted to graduate with her class.

" It just got worse and worse, and I went, 'OK, we need to get her some help,' "

her mother says.

About three months after the auto accident, Madeline began seeing a therapist

once a week, but her slide continued.

" He did not know what was wrong with her, " Deb Sherlock says. " He was a very

nice person and she liked talking to him, but I don't think he had a clue. "

Twice Madeline ran away from home.

There were still good times, nights when her father was out of town and Madeline

would crawl into bed with her mother, nights when they all went out to dinner

and she couldn't stop hugging mom and dad. In some ways, that made the bad times

harder.

Sparkplug of team

Tim Sherlock saw his daughter disengage from all of the activities she loved.

Ice hockey, he says, was the one exception.

She played for the under-19 Ozaukee Ice Dogs, a spirited group of young women

who had far more fun than talent.

" They'd get slaughtered, " says team manager Beth Shully, " and they'd drop the

sticks in the middle of the game and just start dancing. "

Madeline was the sparkplug. Around teammates, she kept her sorrow and detachment

in check.

" They really only saw the vivacious side of her up until the last week or so, "

Shully says.

Two weeks before her death she was diagnosed with depression after seeing a new

therapist. She was put on Lexapro, an anti-depressant. She told friends the

medication was helping.

But the pills made her feel lethargic, and adjusting the dosage didn't seem to

work. Her mood shifted wildly.

On July 21, Tim Sherlock drove his daughter to summer school. She seemed

lethargic and he gave her his best pep talk. He told her she could fight her way

out of this rut. She shouldn't let the opinions of others affect her.

" I know, " she said. Her voice sounded flat, disengaged.

Deb Sherlock spoke to her daughter around 6 p.m. Madeline didn't sound good. Her

mother asked her to come home, but she didn't.

That night Madeline went to a get-together with friends at a house in Glendale.

She was very quiet and kept slipping away to make calls on a friend's cell

phone. After 15 minutes, her friends worried, went looking for her and found

her.

Later, she disappeared again, and this time her friends could not find her. They

called the Sherlocks and the police.

The next morning Madeline was found in a yard not far from the home she had been

visiting.

The Sherlocks would not say how their daughter killed herself.

" She didn't do something that could fail, " Deb Sherlock says. " She was very

intent. "

The Sherlocks struggled to understand their daughter's death.

They learned that Madeline had not been calling people as a cry for help.

Apparently, she had already decided what to do, and was only searching for the

means to do it.

After her death, Madeline's hockey teammates wore her number 9 on the sleeves of

their team jerseys. Friends came to the Sherlock home and talked and cried and

hugged.

But others in the community, whom the Sherlocks had expected to reach out, drew

back instead.After witnessing the way some responded, the Sherlocks wanted to be

sure children who needed help would not be pushed away, but rather drawn closer

and embraced.

Their hopes were bolstered when the anonymous benefactor, who had seen Madeline

play hockey, came forward. In early August the benefactor approached G.

Stein, who runs Strategies for Philanthropy.

As a result, Maddie's Fund for Teen Health has been established. Among other

programs, the fund will pay for the new support group, and a mass mailing of

postcards with warning signs and suicide prevention resources. The postcards

will be sent to every home in Ozaukee County with a child between 10 and 18.

Imagining her future

Back in fourth grade, when Madeline Sherlock and her classmates wrote their

autobiographies, they were asked to imagine the future. Madeline anticipated

some hard times ahead:

High school is so hard. When I think back to when I was in fifth grade,

sometimes I wish I was there.

But she saw herself making it through the tough times. She wrote of getting into

college, studying to be a reporter and working in a clothing store at the mall.

She ended her autobiography in the middle of the life she imagined for herself.

Ring, ring! I pick up the phone. It's Jill my news reporter partner. She says

that Sue was just found murdered this morning. I'll be right down, I

say.

From the Nov. 1, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now.