Grief after Suicide
  • Grief After Suicide Blog
  • Personal Grief Coaching
  • Training & Presentations
  • Suggest a Story
  • Contact

WISE PRACTITIONER WEIGHS IN ON 'COMPLICATED GRIEF' DEBATE

2/1/2014

1 Comment

 
John Wilson's "The Nature of Complicated Grief" is worthy of a careful reading by anyone interested in Complicated Grief or in the debate over whether grief is (or whether some form of it can be) an illness.

He calls his essay an "attempt to take a balanced view of the arguments for and against diagnosing Complicated Grief," and whether one agrees that his view is balanced, he does an excellent job of summarizing his topic, delving into everything from Holly Prigerson's and Kathyrn Shear's point of view to key ideas from authors featured in a recently published book of scholarly essays on Complicated Grief, which Wilson calls "a seminal collection of writing."

He thoughtfully covers the issue of what constitutes normal grief and grief from a traumatic death and identifies the features proposed to distinguish Complicated Grief from both, namely its intensity, duration, and effect on a person's functioning. He elaborates on this latter feature, which is most interesting to me -- for it is a person's ability to function in life that I rely on to determine if someone I am working with might need more assistance than I am able to offer.

The value of Wilson's essay, in part, is that it shows a clinician -- who is not also a researcher -- trying to grapple with the difficult questions of Complicated Grief (or not) and grief as a malady (or not). To his statement (which is, I believe, a paraphrase of Therese Rando's thinking) "it is the idiosyncratic, complex nature of all grief, normal and complicated, that defines the problem," I would add that the problem also lies in trying to answer such questions in a reductive way, which to me is the crux of the matter.

In the end, he emphasizes a caregiver's point of view with which I strongly agree:
For practitioners, this concept reminds us of the importance of a client-centred approach rather than a reliance on textbooks to tell us what to expect, both in healthy and dysfunctional grief ... Clients are not there to fit into neat theories, they are individuals. We can and should learn about grief by listening closely to their human experience.
1 Comment

FJC'S JOURNAL: FRAME OF MIND (AND HEART) HAS A POWER ALL ITS OWN

10/11/2013

2 Comments

 
"FJC's Journal" is an occasional feature on the Grief after Suicide blog, in which publisher Franklin James Cook shares observations about suicide bereavement based on his personal experience as a survivor of suicide loss.

One of my tasks for publishing the Grief after Suicide blog is, daily, to look at 100 to 200 headlines related to suicide or suicide bereavement. A computer program collects them from the Internet and organizes them into lists for me, one list of headlines on the topic of suicide only, another list on grief only, and another list on suicide and grief. I read the top two or three paragraphs of a dozen or more of the stories I encounter every day, and I read a handful in their entirety. I've been doing this for months, and I did it for a couple of years back in 2008-2010, when I was publishing Suicide Prevention News & Comment.

I've been thinking about the cumulative effect on me of being exposed to all of those reports on suicide. Even if they're about survivors' growth and healing, there is heartbreak in every one of them; and in fact, many are provocatively sorrowful, and a few include graphic details of a death. Why is it that I do not feel traumatized by this? Am I detached? Numb? Have I compartmentalized the suffering caused by suicide? Have I been desensitized to it?

I don't think so. Here is what my experience has been and some observations about my reactions ...


Read More
2 Comments

PTSD SCREENING DAY REMINDS ALL SURVIVORS: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

6/20/2013

0 Comments

 
June 20 is PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) Screening Day. But regardless of what day it is, if you are concerned about the possible effects of trauma in your life, please learn about the symptoms of PTSD and take this free, confidential screening.

Here are two websites that cover every aspect of PTSD, including what it is, what to do about it, who to contact, and how you can be helpful to others:

• U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs PTSD Awareness Month website, which focuses on PTSD in the military and among veterans, and in addition has many helpful resources for the general public
• National Child Traumatic Stress Network, which focuses on caring for children who have experienced trauma


PTSD is an important topic when it comes to dealing with bereavement after a death by suicide, but certainly not everyone who has lost a loved one to suicide suffers from PTSD. PTSD is a concern because suicide is an inherently traumatic way to die, and many survivors are exposed to the trauma. It is inherently traumatic because people who kill themselves, in order to do so, must exert an unnatural psychological force directed at destroying themselves in a way and to a degree that it overcomes the biological drive for self-preservation. In other words, regardless of the method a person uses to kill himself or herself,* it is an act of violence at the psychological level.

Read More
0 Comments

BOOKLET GUIDES FIRST RESPONDERS IN HELPING SUICIDE SURVIVORS AT THE SCENE

3/31/2013

0 Comments

 
The Winnipeg Suicide Prevention Network has published "A Guide for Early Responders Supporting Survivors Bereaved by Suicide" (free download*), which fills a real need in the field of suicide grief support. Those who work in law enforcement, emergency medical services, and fire departments are often the first people on the scene of a suicide fatality, and their compassion and helpfulness can make a big difference to the loved ones of the deceased.
Early responders play a vital role in supporting people who have lost someone they care about, someone they know who has died by suicide. Suicide loss is profoundly different than other loss and grief in that it is a intentional act that can have crippling effects for the family, friends and other survivors. Suicide ... is a complex, multi-faceted problem leaving some survivors who have a loved one die by suicide with their life as they knew it changed forever.
The guide begins by explaining the unique characteristics of suicide loss and describing the reactions of survivors that commonly occur, framing its advice with this very helpful observation:
Whatever reactions, feelings, or questions the survivor has ... this is understandable and alright considering the terrible situation and loss they have experienced. There is no right or wrong way to feel, respond or grieve.

Read More
0 Comments

MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE PRINCIPLES APPLY TO AFTERMATH OF SUICIDE

3/2/2013

0 Comments

 
Grief is the normal human reaction to loss -- it is not a mental illness -- yet helping people who have experienced a traumatic loss, such as when someone dies by suicide, can be informed by the principles that guide mental health practice. I believe an excellent set of guiding principles for responding to a suicide fatality, in fact, can be found in the booklet "Practice Guidelines: Core Elements for Responding to Mental Health Crises." The guidelines clearly apply to suicide loss, first of all, because they address
mental health crises [that] may include intense feelings of personal distress (anxiety, depression, anger, panic, or hopelessness), obvious changes in functioning ... or catastrophic life events.
Secondly, the guidelines -- though focused on mental health crises -- were developed to promote two goals that also are essential to responding to a suicide on behalf of those who might be affected by the death:
• Ensure that standards consistent with recovery and resilience guide ... crisis interventions.
• Replace today's largely reactive and cyclical approach to ... crises with one that works toward reducing the likelihood of future emergencies and that produces better outcomes.

Read More
0 Comments

FILM 'REBIRTH' TESTIFIES TO PAIN OF LOSS, POWER OF RESILIENCY

1/31/2013

0 Comments

 
Yesterday, I attended a training where I saw the film Rebirth, which is a deeply moving depiction of the grief process that I would recommend to anyone who has suffered a traumatic loss (as long as you have done some healing work of your own, for the story is extraordinarily powerful and is guaranteed to stir your emotions). The film juxtaposes time-lapse photography of the rebuilding under way at the World Trade Centers site with intimate interviews of five people who lost loved ones or were injured in the 9/11 attack. The images and stories evolve over nearly a decade of filming, creating a moving testament both to the deep pain caused by traumatic loss and to the resiliency humans -- and communities -- bring to the challenges of healing and recovery.

In a feature story published in 2011 when Rebirth was first released, Doris Toumarkine writes for Film Journal International:

While Rebirth makes fascinating use of the time-lapse footage of the rebuilding, it is the profoundly affected five subjects with compelling stories of trauma, bravery and recovery who provide the emotional life and narrative spine of the film. Their presence, also recorded over many years ... and captured digitally as they sit alone against a black background, gives the picture the distinction of being the first long-term film record of 9/11 survivors and families coping with grief and trauma.

Read More
0 Comments
Forward>>
    FREE NEWSLETTER
    BLOG HOME PAGE
    • "After a Suicide" Resources 
    • Directory of Survivor Support Groups


    Categories

    All
    Advocacy & Policy
    Announcements
    Black Community
    Children's Grief
    Community Support
    Death Of A Child
    Death Of A Friend
    Death Of A Parent
    Death Of A Sibling
    Death Of A Spouse
    Depression & Grief
    Experts On Grief
    First Responders
    FJC's Journal
    Grief And Communities
    Health & Grief
    Helping Others
    Holidays
    Men's Grief
    Military
    National Guidelines
    Peer Support
    Programs And Services
    Research
    Spirituality & Grief
    Suicide Prevention
    Support Groups
    Survivor Outlook
    Survivor Resources
    Survivor Showcase
    Survivor Stories
    Taking Action
    Trauma

    Grief after Suicide posts are by Franklin Cook (unless noted). Learn more about Franklin's work in suicide grief support.
    Blogs on Suicide Grief
    • Alliance of Hope
    • Healing Suicide Grief
    • Lala's Mom
    • Our Side of Suicide
    • Mary's Shortcut
    • Loss of a Child
    • Bright Shining Star
    • Speaking of Suicide
    • Everything But the Cat

    RSS Feed

    TERMS OF USE AND SERVICE
    Must be read by anyone posting any content on this website.

    © 2016 Personal Grief Coaching.
    All Rights Reserved.