Surviving After a Suicide Loss
A suicide loss support group in Naples, Florida
When you lose a loved one to suicide, you can feel completely lost in your pain and grief. You may feel you are completely alone with no roadmap to guide you out of your pain. If you remain open, the guide will appear and the words you need to get you through that next moment, that next day show up when you need them most.
When we lose a loved one to suicide, one of the many questions we grapple with is where are they? Some survivors have found comfort and understanding through listening to stories from people who died and had a near-death experience (NDE) before they were revived. Their experiences share hope and understanding that our loved ones and the love we shared here on earth continues.
It will always be painful, you will always miss and love the person you lost. But the intensity of the pain and the overwhelming preoccupation changes. And that isn't really your choice. It's a natural organic process that you're not in charge of. The only thing you can do is find ways of supporting yourself to navigate that process as it comes through your system. It’s important to allow that to happen.
Holidays are difficult for all who have lost a loved one to suicide but especially hard for the newly bereaved survivor. The tendency is to remember happier holidays spent with all family members present. As the years go by, our loved one's absence is still difficult, but it becomes less overwhelming. Having a plan for… Continue reading Facing the Holidays
From The Mighty: Losing the will to live is not always standing on a ledge. It’s not always being in crisis mode (for me anyway). It’s a dull ache in my chest that weighs me down constantly. I might laugh or appear normal, but that ache to disappear is there, underneath. Click below to read more.… Continue reading What it Feels Like to Lose the Will to Live
Becoming Real in the Aftermath of SuicideJuly 20, 2020 Author: Heidi Botterill for Alliance of HopeWe all know this to be a truly cruddy experience and journey. Really, it is just horrendous. There is no escaping the pain of it, the gut-punching realness of it, the self-humbling awareness that it brings. In the very dark… Continue reading Why does it still hurt so much?
Surviving through Writing by George Ochoa I am a writer, and so was my only child, Martha Corey-Ochoa, until she killed herself. It was the family business. My wife and I worked at home as freelance writers for most of Martha’s life. As soon as Martha learned to write, she began working alongside us in… Continue reading Surviving through Writing — Guest Post by George Ochoa
The Gift of Someone Who Listens By Nancy Myerholts: From Compassionate Friends, Cape Cod