End-of-life care (5)
- End of life: Caring for a dying loved one
- Hospice care: Comforting the terminally ill
- Terminal illness: Supporting a terminally ill loved one
- see all in End-of-life care
Grief (8)
- Suicide grief: Healing after a loved one's suicide
- Dealing with grief: Confronting painful emotions
- Grief: Coping with reminders after a loss
- see all in Grief
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
continued:
Suicide grief: Healing after a loved one's suicide
Know when to seek professional help
If you experience intense or unrelenting anguish or physical problems, consider asking your doctor or mental health provider for help. Seeking professional help is especially important if you think you might be depressed or you have recurring thoughts of suicide. Keep in mind that unresolved grief can turn into complicated grief, where painful emotions are so long lasting and severe that you have trouble resuming your own life.
Depending on the circumstances, you might benefit from individual or family therapy — either to get you through the worst of the crisis or to help you adjust to life after suicide. Medication can be helpful in some cases, too.
Face the future with a sense of peace
In the aftermath of a loved one's suicide, you may feel like you can't go on or that you'll never enjoy life again. In truth, you may always wonder why it happened — and reminders may trigger painful feelings even years later. Eventually, however, the raw intensity of your grief will fade. The tragedy of the suicide won't dominate your days and nights. Understanding the complicated legacy of suicide and how to cope with palpable grief can help you reach inner peace and healing, without forgetting your loved one.
Previous page(2 of 2)
- Block SD. Grief and bereavement. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 25, 2009.
- Schreiber J, et al. Suicidal ideation and behavior in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 25, 2009.
- Grief after suicide. Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. http://www.save.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=EB8EE3F1-7E90-9BD4-CE08CCD6E3FFD933. Accessed Nov. 25, 2009.
- Begley M, et al. The lived experience of adults bereaved by suicide: A phenomenological study. Crisis. 2007;28:26.
- Sveen CA, et al. Suicide survivors' mental health and grief reactions: A systematic review of controlled studies. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. 2008;38:13.
Find Mayo Clinic on