Between the 17 year old's suicide and this story I'm not sure I want to read anymore on the net tonight.

Hurray! So glad you wrote this comment. I'm in the UK too and absolutely agree with what you've said.

Are you in the UK or have you just been watching too much Fox News and reading the Daily Mail?

There is a a British woman, Tareena Shakil, who went over to Syria and did manage to escape. She was significantly older than these girls and was still groomed, fed the line that the violence was necessary, thought she was doing the right thing.

Even though I find their views abhorrent, they are still children. They've been targeted, groomed and successfully radicalised. That doesn't mean we should give up on them.

I doubt the girls have much notion of the differences.

Radicalisation is not genetic.

They are promised glory, war is glamorised and a lot of the tweets coming from young women in Syria sound not so different from any other young women. I'm guessing like a lot of teenagers they have no sense of their own mortality.

Definitely.

Glad I'm not alone. I had to Google flexual. I really hope that whomever designed this acronym did so with humour and self depreciation in mind.

Thank you for sharing your story. I'm sorry you had such an awful time.

They aren't carrying the child

I wish they had ended up with neither child. I worry for that little girl. Can't help but wonder whether the man's therapy, for paedophilia, was really effective. Just hope Australian social services are involved.

I wanted to recommend these but couldn't remember what they were called. They are brilliant and so much quicker than normal pins

They look delicious. Think I might have to try them tomorrow.

Mental health services are so underfunded and there is still such stigma around mental illness in the UK that anything/anyone who can help raise awareness issue great.

Sorry, I didn't mean for my comment to come off as, "I'm alright Jack."

That's horrific. I'm so sorry.

I'm disabled and don't share the same fears. I get that I'm not based in the US but my understanding is that the states that allow assisted suicide have strong regulations in place to ensure that it isn't misused.

I'm in the UK and every time this comes up in the media one of the opposing arguments around any assisted dying law is that for the elderly or disabled, such a law would make them feel as though they had no choice because they feel they are a burden on their loved ones.