The emergency call went out at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. A 15-year-old girl had taken 20 Motrins and she had cut her wrists. The apparent suicide attempt by Paris Jackson at her home in Calabasas was, according to experts, likely a cry for help.
"Teenagers don't really want to die; they want out of the pain," said Elaine Leder, executive director of Teen Line, a hotline for troubled teens. "For a long time, suicide was the third leading cause of teenage death. It recently moved up to the second leading cause."
Teen Line operates out of Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and it gets more than 10,000 calls a year.
"It doesn't matter what the socioeconomic background is of the family, because teens can get depressed from any background," said Leder.
Paris Jackson was recently spotted in Lancaster with her mother, Debbie Rowe. Jackson's ex-wife, who gave up her parental rights to both her children with Jackson, told Entertainment Tonight that Paris had attempted suicide and that the teen is going through a lot.
"Paris has lost her parent. She lost her dad, and that's a very difficult and very grief-provoking thing to go through," said Leder.
Leder has some advice for parents who are concerned about their children: Listen.
Leder also points out that anniversaries can be especially hard on people who are still grieving the loss of a loved one. And it was in June 2009 when Michael Jackson died of an anesthetic overdose.
