Ocean

Ocean, EI and Teen Suicide

Ocean is an 18 year old from the USA. We started chatting last year. Then her parents found out and banned her from the Internet and got a “protection” order to stop me from talking to her. You can read about this on the old and new Ocean web pages. Right now I just want to say that we have been traveling together in Europe for the past couple weeks and I have collected a lot of notes which will become the subject of many future articles about emotional intelligence and teen suicide.

As a teen Ocean has tried to kill herself and she has been in the mental hospital three times. When we were chatting last year I thought she had very high EI -- now I am more convinced of it. So I want to show those interested in teen suicide and EI that it is possible for someone to have high EI and feel suicidal. I want to explain what happened in Ocean’s life with as much detail as possible as well as share stories about other suicidal teens she has known.

For example, there is one story she told me of a girl who was in the mental hospital with her. The girl's father used to take a gun and point it to his head and then call her and her mother into the room and say he was going to kill himself and he wanted them to watch.

I would like the "experts" in emotional intelligence to think about this. I would like them to think about whether there might be a connection between parenting and teen suicide. Right now it seems they think that a person who is suicidal suffers from low emotional intelligence.

I disagree.

I disagreed before I met Ocean and disagree even more strongly after meeting her and hearing more of her childhood history.

I want to share these stories with those in the field of psychology so they might have a better understanding of cause and effect.

S. Hein
Liege, Belgium
July 12, 2006