Tips for Coping With Suicide Loss
If a person you love has died by suicide, it can be particularly difficult and painful to sort through your emotions. As you cope with the loss, however, it is important to monitor and take care of your own mental health.
Grief can cause a range of emotions to surface, including loneliness, shock, despair, confusion, anger or rejection. One of the most common feelings is guilt. Especially if you’re grieving someone lost to suicide, you might blame yourself for their death and wonder what you could’ve done differently.
Meg Blaylock, MS, LPC, NCC, a therapist at Right Track Medical Group’s Columbus clinic, suggested asking yourself, “if you were the person who you lost, would you want your loved ones to feel this way and suffer?”
“Using a cognitive-behavioral approach, it’s important not to allow ourselves to linger in this space,” Blaylock said. “It won’t change the situation, nor will it bring anyone back. Instead, focus on positive memories and try to imagine your loved one without pain.”
For Blaylock, the most important thing someone coping with this grief can do is reach out to talk with someone about what they’re feeling. Specifically, group therapy and support groups offer a chance to talk with people who have gone through or are going through the same things.
“Support from people who know exactly what it’s like to walk in your shoes is oftentimes more comforting than talking with someone who can only guess what it’s like, even if that person is empathetic,” Blaylock said.
Even if you didn’t personally lose someone to suicide, the Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers ways to support someone who is grieving. If someone comes to you, accept their emotions —even if they are complex or conflicting — and offer support without judgment.
The Lifeline also recommends being especially careful during times like holidays and anniversaries and continuing to use the name of the person who died by suicide to show that you haven’t forgotten them and not further stigmatize their death.
So, when should a grieving person seek professional help?
Blaylock offered two warning signs that indicate someone may benefit from professional mental healthcare.
First, if the grieving period lingers and impedes one’s daily life long after the typical amount of time that it takes people to work through the initial phases of grief. Second, if someone finds themselves thinking that they cannot live life without the person they lost and begins considering suicide themselves so they can leave and join their loved one.
It’s also important to watch for typical signs of depression:
Isolating from others
Drastic changes in eating habits
Significant weight gain or loss
Disruption of sleep
Significant amounts of anxiety and/or panic attacks
If you or someone you know is grieving a loved one’s death by suicide, Right Track Medical Group is here to provide patients with accessible outpatient mental health treatment. Right Track’s clinics offer in-person and telehealth options for treatment including therapy and medication management.
Schedule an appointment by calling our office at (662) 234-7601.