The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported a startling statistic on teen suicide: Emergency room visits for attempted suicide among teenage girls were up 51.6 percent in 2021, as compared to 2019. So, what’s going on, and more to the point, what is going terribly wrong for our teenage girls? What’s creating such a level of suffering that suicide is seen as a potential solution? And, more urgently, what can we as parents and adults, in general, do about this disturbing new reality? The complicated reasons behind the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts are more than I can discuss here. But one theory that tries to explain the statistic above is that girls, specifically, rely on social connections to friends, teachers, and schools for their mental health. The interactions that social connection depends on have been lost or terribly disrupted during the past two years. …