I recently lost a friend to suicide—and discovered you can’t really know how you’ll feel about someone taking their own life until you are faced with it. My responses ranged from confusion to shock to anger to deep sadness, all in the same moment. I am overwhelmed to think that he was in such a place of suffering that the only way out he could see was to end his life. Suicide is the final choice and has farther-reaching results than I could have imagined.
In the book, No Time to Say Goodbye; Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One, Carla Fine shares her personal story of her recovery from her husband’s suicide and the experiences of many others on the path of healing after a loved one has left them in such a final way. “The suicide of a loved one reshapes us: Our beliefs and perceptions have been shaken by the deliberate, permanent departure of a person we have cared for, depended on, cherished, and nurtured.”
Fine helped me understand that we must focus on the life of the deceased and on our own life as well, instead of getting so wrapped up in the unexpected ending of death. I highly recommend it for anyone who has been touched by suicide.
With an increase in suicide rates due to these stressful economic times, it behooves us all to be on alert for the signs and symptoms of depression and know how we can help.
