Suicide Survivors: Coping with Finding the Body of Your Loved One After the Suicide
Suicide Survivors: Coping with Finding the Body of Your Loved One After the Suicide
by Kevin Caruso
Few words pierce my heart more than when a suicide survivor tells me about finding the body of his of her loved one after a suicide.
Not only is the loved one dead, but he or she may be hanging by a rope from a tree or lying in a pool of blood with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
These images are painful beyond imagination.
And I pray to God everyday that people will be spared from these events.
But for some, these horrible sights are etched in their mind forever.
For all of you who have endured this, God bless you. I love you and support you more than you could ever imagine. And you WILL get through this. I love you very much.
You absolutely MUST get as much help as possible. And that means getting into counseling immediately. Go as often as you need to. I know of many people who went to counseling EVERY DAY after a suicide. So go as often as you need and speak to as many counselors as you want.
And get into a suicide support group if one is available. Reach out to other suicide survivors.
And reach out to your close friends. You need them and they want to help you.
Now, what do you do to try to expunge the image of the suicide?
Get pictures of your loved one and look at them. Fill your mind with those images. Place them around your house.
And ACTIVELY think about your loved one when he or she was alive. Call these wonderful images into your mind and imprint them. They are great memories.
And TALK about your loved one with people that you trust. CELEBRATE his or her life.
No, it will not be easy. Seeing your loved one after the suicide is unbelievably painful. But you can work to ease that pain and replace that image with happy images.
The most important thing to do, however, is to REACH OUT FOR HELP.
Never stop doing that. Not now. Now five years from now. Not fifty years from now.
And always remember that I love you very much; I care for you very much; and I will never stop fighting for you.
You are an amazing person.
Take care,
Kevin Caruso
If you or someone you know is suicidal, please go to the Home Page of this website for immediate help.
Thank you.
I love you.
Take care,
Kevin Caruso
