Louisiana survivors of suicide loss reflect on how self-inflicted death inflicts torment on others
EDITOR’S NOTE: These quotes are from survivors of suicide loss, some of whom participate in the LOSS Team, a pioneering “postvention” service developed by the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center to support newly bereaved victims of suicide loss. For more see brcic.org.
“What kind of help do survivors need? One does not ‘get over’ a suicide. The effects may stabilize, but the loss is forever felt. Personal values and beliefs are shattered. The individual is changed emotionally …. All need help in understanding suicide and what it has done to their lives.”
– Suicide loss survivor A. Salvatore
“The months following my father’s death were unbearable. I was overwhelmed by emotions and thoughts that I didn’t understand. My confusion was leading me to the exact place my father was when he decided to end his life.”
– Suicide loss survivor Kari Millet
“I got a call one night at midnight, that a young man, a college student, had shot and killed himself in his apartment …. Four years ago this young man’s dad had killed himself, and according to the roommate … this had weighed heavily on his mind, had actually eaten him up on the inside, and he had no one to talk to or help him with his feelings. Had support and immediate response been in place four years ago, and this young man … may not have been where he was last night, cold and alone and dead by his own hand, so full of pain and hopelessness and self-hatred.”
– Suicide loss survivor Mark Wilson