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Triggers
The world can be a very triggering place after experiencing suicide loss. We can find triggers in the strangest places; hearing about a friends dinner with both their parents when you’ve lost a parent, making a single cup of tea when you used to always make two, big occasions like Christmas, Eid and Birthdays. Step back and reflect on moments that make you feel uncomfortable, upset or propel you into deep grief and acknowledge what those moments are. The more we know about our grief and potential triggers the easier it is to work through them, open up to those around you and explain why you are reacting to certain situations. The more we talk, the easier managing triggers becomes.
Talking
Talking about your grief or discussing memories of your lost loved one might help you to feel a sense of peace and it can help to confront and deal with your feelings. At Suicide&Co, we encourage open and honest discussions of grief because suppressing these emotions can be mentally, physically and emotionally damaging. Whilst talking is important, we recognise that we do not always have the right tools to start these conversations- this is why we developed our conversation guide!
Time
The age old saying of “Time is the greatest healer” is true. As time goes on our grief doesn’t always leave us but we learn how to hold our grief and move forward, with life growing around us. Be kind to yourself as time goes on, your grief and your experience will never become less valid but it will change with time.
Therapy
Anyone can go to therapy, it's time to challenge the stereotypes! You don’t need to be experiencing poor mental health to explore therapy. Talking therapies or counselling is talking about your life and feelings, let's keep it simple - would you go to the gym or eat healthy food to look after your physical fitness? Therapy is exactly this but for your mental fitness, therapy offers you a safe non-judgmental space to talk about things that matter to you.
Trauma
Labelling your experience can empower you to own what happened to you. Suicide loss carries trauma because it evokes long lasting emotions towards the event or the person you lost. Spend time trying unpack your trauma and explore the mixed feelings that you might feel towards your experience of suicide loss. A traumatic event doesn’t need to define the rest of your life, once we accept the enormity of trauma we can start to understand it and live with it. If you feel like you can't cope with the emotions of trauma alone please speak to someone.