Impact on Family and Friends

How does a suicide effect the lives of others?

There are many people, in every country, who have to deal with the loss of someone they know to suicide. They get the title of suicide survivors. These survivors have a hard time dealing with their emotions and never fully understand why the person decided to take their own life. "Some people pass through a normal grief process and heal quickly, but studies suggest that suicide survivors often experience more guilt, rejection, shame and isolation than those who grieve other deaths" (Goode).

In order to help suicide survivors understand the suicide and the feelings that come along with it, talk with them and make sure they know that they are not alone in these emotions (Heru). Don't let them keep their feelings bottled up inside, but rather discuss them and help them cope.

Some major feelings that a suicide survivor will almost always encounter are anger, shock, guilt and despair. They might be angry because they never caught the signs of the person being suicidal or they might even be angry at the person for leaving them all alone. Shock causes the survivors to think that it didn't happen and that it was just a dream and the person is still alive. There is no way that they could have taken their own life and they do not believe in their death. Survivors feel guilty because they didn't do anything to stop the suicide. They feel like they are to blame for the person's death. Finally, a survivor might feel despair and even consider suicide themselves because they can't deal with the pain and sadness that appeared by their loved ones unexpected death (Mayo Clinic).

Changes that were not emotional also can occur. One can have horrible dreams and nightmares about the suicide and some can have flashbacks to finding the body. These can also happen during the day. A survivor might be at work and suddenly flashback to the loved one's life because they hear a song that is playing on the radio or see a picture of them. It can cause them to be wiped out for the rest of the day and not able to function as they had before the death (Van Dongen). It makes adjusting back to normal life exhausting and difficult as the symptoms of sadness and misunderstanding keep occurring.

Entire families can be drawn closer together or crumble when an event like this occurs. Some survivors rely on their family for support and grieve together to help each other cope with the situation. Others start pushing the blame they feel off of themselves and onto their family members and friends who are also suffering the same feelings of blame and guilt (Van Dongen). It can become so bad that families no longer get along which just seems to cause more sadness and anger in the survivors' lives.

The people that take it the hardest are normally the people that didn't catch on to any of the warning signs. They are in total shock that something like this happened to someone that they knew (Van Dongen). They are unable to grasp the idea that it really occurred which in turn makes it harder to deal with the emotions that are brought with the death.