Breaking up can be too much for teens

HOUSTON, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Breaking up is hard to do at any age, but the intense emotions that come with a breakup can be too much for some teens, a U.S. child psychiatrist says.

Dr. Norma Clarke, a child psychiatrist at The Menninger Clinic in Houston, says that she has treated teens who have attempted suicide, cut themselves and abused alcohol or drugs because they have trouble dealing with a breakup.

In isolated cases, some teens undergoing a breakup may feel so depressed that they also harm others and a break up is the second most common reason that teens attempt suicide, Clarke says.

A breakup signals to parents to be alert for signs of trouble in their teen's emotional health.

"If your teen falls off the deep end and you have a sense that you are losing control of him or her, you need to intervene," Clarke says in a statement.