{"id":969,"date":"2009-05-20T18:57:05","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T23:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/?p=969"},"modified":"2009-05-20T20:13:44","modified_gmt":"2009-05-21T01:13:44","slug":"karen-answers-philannon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/?p=969","title":{"rendered":"Karen answers Philannon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Comment by Philann<\/cite>on 13 May 2009 at 10:50 am<\/em><\/div>\n
What would you say to a teenager contemplating suicide because a friend of her\u2019s older downs syndrome brother raped her and he was too strong for her to fight off. I think she should call the police and report it. Just because the guy is slow doesn\u2019t make it forgiveable. I told her to tell her friend but she said no. I don\u2019t want to lose her because of this. What could I do to help prevent her from taking her own life. I heard people who threaten aren\u2019t really serious but can\u2019t buy that. \u00a0I know this girl and she means what she says. She\u2019s not capable of lying. I read you book and admire Dr. Baer for helping you. Who would ever believe rape to be so damaging. My friend is special to me. I want to be her Dr. Baer.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Dear Philannon,<\/div>\n
I’m sorry to hear that your friend was raped, and yes, it’s sad that the rapist happened to have Down’s syndrome. I am not a therapist and can’t give advice, nor am I qualified to give any advice on whether to call the police. \u00a0However, in my opinion, rape is rape, and your friend was violated. \u00a0That is not acceptable. \u00a0I believe\u00a0all acts of rape should be reported. \u00a0If the rape goes unreported, he may rape another woman, teen, or young girl. \u00a0Please do the right thing and report it. \u00a0The brother with Down’s syndrome needs help, too.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
There are misconceptions regarding people who say they want to end their life. On some level, if you say it, you mean it. \u00a0However, I also believe by sharing suicidal thoughts one is looking for someone, anyone, to help them change their mind. \u00a0I’ve felt suicidal many times, and believe me, I meant it. \u00a0When I would share my suicidal thoughts with Dr. Baer, I was looking for him to say “please don’t, I care”. \u00a0If your friend continues to say she doesn’t wish to live, she really needs help, and not from you but from a trained professional therapist. \u00a0Being a friend is one thing, but stepping into the role of a therapist in not only inappropriate but dangerous. \u00a0Please encourage her to talk to someone. Please don’t try to be your friend’s therapist. \u00a0Just be her friend.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Wishing all of you my best.<\/div>\n
Karen<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comment by Philannon 13 May 2009 at 10:50 am What would you say to a teenager contemplating suicide because a friend of her\u2019s older downs syndrome brother raped her and he was too strong for her to fight off. I think she should call the police and report it. Just because the guy is slow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":973,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}