Reply to "How do you help?"

I may have left the incorrect impression. The girl who lost her life last week (we still don't know for sure that it was a suicide, but that is what the police seem to think is most likely at this point) was not an athlete, but rather a graduate student in electrical engineering who was almost unbelievably smart. (Bachelor's and master's from MIT, Ph.D. candidate at Stanford, perfect SATs and grades, and beautiful to boot). The point is, that depression and isolation, lack of support in a highly competitive environment, are common denominators.

Of course you have to distinguish mere "whining"--which we can all wink at--from something more serious. The problem as I wrote somewhere else is that sometimes the first sign of a serious problem is suicide. Just be attentive and try to discern the difference--not that it is necessarily possible to do so.

I have degrees from Harvard and Stanford Law School. I am raising three children, managing a house, and have a solo law practice in a very stressful field. I also run about 25 miles a week, hard. The workload I have runs from about 6 in the morning to 10 or 11 o'clock a night, nonstop including lunch at my desk. My workload and stress level is NOTHING compared to my son's. OTOH, he has more fun than I do, too (as it should be, ah youth!)