ARE YOU FEELING STUCK IN YOUR GRIEF JOURNEY?
When death is very sudden and traumatic, such as a suicide, this increases the degree of shock and trauma experienced by family and friends compared to many other types of bereavement.
People who have been bereaved by suicide may have symptoms of post-traumatic stress. If the person found the body, they may suffer from flashbacks or nightmares. This can also happen even if the person did not see them but cannot stop imagining what happened. Imagination can be worse than reality. Upsetting images can haunt us and block the normal grieving process.
We can feel angry with the deceased person for leaving us if they have taken their own life, and that can cause us to feel guilty.
We may struggle to make sense of what has happened. We can get stuck in a cycle of torturing ourselves with “What if” and “If only” when we didn’t get the chance to say “Goodbye” or don’t understand why our loved one died.
Where grief is complicated, clients would benefit from individual sessions before joining a group program.