Thinking about pain as an ally seems almost impossible after a loss by suicide.  Pain is one of the things you most fear; it is something you don't embrace, or welcome with open arms.  Yet, pain can be your best teacher.  In the aftermath of my own father's suicide I remember thinking and feeling that life as I knew it had changed.  For quite sometime I fought this notion, and hated that my life had changed without me wanting it to.  My heart was ...

From an outside perspective, it can look like we are giving up after a loss by suicide.  The tears keep falling, phone calls go unanswered, plans get cancelled.  Are we giving up the fight?  No.  We are learning how to live again.  In essence, we are starting over.  Suicide changes everything you know to be true about the world.  Recently, I spoke about what constitutes a traumatic loss, and how the grief process differs from that of a natural ...

Grateful and suicide; two words that often are not associated with one another.  How can you feel grateful after experiencing something that has caused tremendous pain and angst?  Suicide takes people away from us in a manner that we couldn't have ever imagined.  It brings forth a new level of pain, one that we never knew existed.  It can be difficult to wake up to a new day, and not think about the pain left behind by the suicide you ...

We often associate grief with pain, sadness, and fear.  Yet if we take time to think about it, grief is love.  Grief is a daily reminder of the person we lost, the memories we created, and the love we shared.  I am often asked by those who have been touched by suicide, "When will this pain end?"  I always hesitate to answer the question, because I do not necessarily believe an answer exists.  The pain doesn't ever really end; it just becomes ...