Offering hope, comfort and support for survivors of suicide loss.
Anger at and forgiveness of a loved one are among the most popular topics survivors of suicide raise on the blog. Today, we welcome guest blogger Brandy L., who discusses her ongoing battle with both following the loss of her mother.
In July of 1991, as a ten-year-old little girl, I walked into my house to find my mom dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Her letter goodbye said not much more than “goodbye and good luck.”
In 2006, I ...
Change is never easy, and the worst kind of change is the change that you never even wanted. Beginning a new job is scary. Moving to a new location is scary. Starting your life over is scary. That is what happens the day you lose a loved one to suicide. Life as you know it has changed, and you are forced to begin a new chapter. A chapter that you never wanted to write, let alone live. For me, this was difficult to accept after losing my ...
Since losing my dad to suicide, the winter holidays seem to exacerbate my feelings of anxiety. His absence and the dramatic way his death impacted our family traditions becomes painfully clear this time of year. Coupled with this are coincidentally-timed stressful events that only fan the flames of my worries. (For instance, in December 2014, I panicked about returning to work post maternity-leave and felt a bit of déjà vu again this year.) At ...
Silence is golden. Have you heard this popular quote? While this quote is fairly popular, silence is something that our society is often not comfortable with. We assume that silence is a bad thing, often interrupting these quiet moments with conversation. I know all too well the feeling of isolation that follow a death by suicide. Friends and family stop calling as they report not knowing what to say. So instead, they just say nothing. I ...
Mourning the loss of a loved one to suicide is hard. Not just because it is unexpected, but because there is no manual telling us what is right and wrong. If we cry too often we feel we are stuck. If we don't cry enough, we feel like we are in denial. The thing about grief is that there is no manual; no right or wrong way. We all need to do what we need to do to get through the day. I often tell the people I work with that not thinking ...
