If we love and lose, we grieve. As a fundamental truth of life, it can be, and often is, both painful and wonderful. While we live with and beside our loved one and experience the full happiness of being alive together, either as spouse or partner or parent or child or close friend, the specter of loss and the accompanying pain remain unseen. But loss does occur and with it comes the experience of grief and what seems like endless sadness with bottomless pain. All forms of loss bring grief, but not all forms of grief are the same. A loss from suicide may share many of the grief reactions of other losses, but it also has differences which bring with them unique challenges. Not only was this death sudden and traumatic, but it also leaves millions of unanswered questions in the hearts and minds of those left in the wake of this death.

Survivors of suicide loss may often feel they are being judged by others. That they must, in some way, be responsible for what has happened. In a similar fashion, survivors may feel a deep sense of guilt for not knowing or sensing what their loved one was feeling or planning. Coupled with feelings of anger toward their loved one, and even toward themselves at times, their pathway of grief may feel overwhelming and without end. Suicide death also leaves unanswered questions of “why” and a longing to understand what a loved one was feeling about their life and how long they had felt that way.

It is JUST different. And… you are not alone.