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You are experiencing one of the most traumatic and painful events of your life. You are likely feeling shocked and have many questions running through your mind. Understanding your emotions and learning something about suicide may ease your grief. More than 30,000 people die by suicide every year. People of all ages, gender, race, and economic status complete suicide. Health care professionals have been searching for answers to the question of why for many years. Experts generally agree that people who take their own life feel an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, isolation, and emotional pain, despite what support may have been provided. A person who completes suicide is likely not seeking to die, but rather to end their pain.
Circumstances such as marital problems, loss, financial difficulties, job stress can contribute to feelings of hopelessness and it may be that the suicidal individual thought there was no solution, other than death, to overcoming problems.
Sometimes there are no apparent reasons or causes. No matter how much you try to find a reason, there won't be an answer to the question of WHY?
As you try to make sense of what has happened, you will need to deal with feelings of shock, anger, and guilt. Your reactions may be more intense than for a death from natural causes. Your grief and sadness will never go away, but it will subside. You will be able to pick up the pieces of your life and rebuild.
There is hope. There is help.
Reach out for help from family and friends or consider attending a support group.
For more information about support groups or information on surviving suicide please call the Office of Suicide Prevention (303) 692-2560.
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Suicide and Its Aftermath: Understanding and Counseling the Survivors |
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| Rando, T. | Parental Loss of a Child |
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| Rosenfeld, L. & Prupas, M. |
Left Alive: After a Suicide Death in the Family |
| Ross, E. | After Suicide: A Ray of Hope |
| Shaefer, D. & Lyons, C. | How Do We Tell the Children ? |
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| Wrobleski, A. | Suicide: Survivors - A Guide for Those Left Behind |
| Wrobleski, A. | Suicide: Why? |
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I don't know why. I will never know why. I don't have to know why.
I don't like it. I don't have to like it.
What I have to do is make a choice about my living.
The choice is mine.
I can go on living, valuing every moment in a way I never did before,
or I can be destroyed by it and, in turn destroy others.
I thought I was immortal. That my family and my children were also.
That tragedy happened only to others.
But I know no that life is tenuous and valuable.
So I am choosing to go on living,
making the most of the time I have,
valuing my family and friends
in a way I never thought possible before.
Iris Bolton, Survivor
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