Coping with a Loved One’s Suicide

Some of the most common emotions people report feeling when coping with a loved one’s suicide include:

• Severe Depression

You may feel a sense of detachment from reality until you are better able to process what happened.

Our brains often try to find someone to blame to protect us from the impact of a loss.

You may begin to feel like you’re a bad person for feeling this way, but it’s more common than you think.

It may be helpful to talk to others who are experiencing this loss with you.

Confronting the Why

At the end of all things, your loved one died of an illness.

A huge factor of mental illnesses like Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia and others are that they fundamentally distort a person’s perception.

It may feel like the only thing they can control in a situation that feels fully out of their control.

Your loved one did not choose to become ill, and they would not have chosen to end their life had their illness not been pushing them to do so.

How to Talk About What Happened

An unfortunate inevitability following a suicide is that you will probably have to tell a lot of people the news about what happened.

Become comfortable with saying no.

Breaking the News

Do not feel as though you are being difficult or unpleasant if you need to tell someone you don’t want to discuss it.