By The New York Times — 2019
Readers, some of them speaking from experience, discuss how family members are often blamed or feel they could have prevented it.
Read on www.nytimes.com
CLEAR ALL
The pattern of highly accomplished and successful people committing suicide is transfixing. It assures the rest of us that a life of accolades is not all that it’s cracked up to be and that achieving more will not make us happier.
In the midst of family tragedy, a father decides that the best path is candor.
Sibling suicide threatens future potential, but doesn't have to destroy it.
Samantha recounts the grief she experienced after losing her brother to suicide.
Suicide-bereaved siblings suffer intensely. They also tend to suffer invisibly.
Five years ago, my father fell into a deep bout of depression. Twelve months later his depression culminated in suicide.
1
In the past two months, three personal essays appeared on this blog that, while each uniquely told, shared a tragic connection. The authors had all lost a close family member to suicide.
Thirteen years ago, my son took his life. At the time, I could not imagine living one more day or hour without him, much less these many years.
Loss survivors – the close family and friends left behind after a suicide – number six to 32 for each death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning that in 2017 alone, as many as 1.5 million people unwillingly became part of this group.
“A suicide is like a pebble in a pond. The waves ripple outward.” Many years ago, my colleague Ken Norton, LICSW, director of NAMI New Hampshire, shared this quote, and it has stuck with me. Visually, when you see a pebble drop into a pond, it’s something small that makes a big impact.