The Pain Of Suicide

When people die by suicide, they leave behind family and friends who suddenly find themselves mourning the person's loss and wondering what happened. This guide addresses many personal issues related to a death by suicide, including telling others, working through the grief, finding what helps people to heal, and grieving in children and youth. This Ontario guide also outlines practical things that need taking care of, such as arranging a funeral and dealing with the deceased's personal, legal and financial matters. A resource section lists organizations, websites and books that may help.

Time doesn’t heal—love heals When Vonnie Woodrick lost her husband Rob to suicide in 2003, she was faced with a series of decisions. How would she move on? How would she support and raise her three children as a young widow? How would she talk about Rob and honor his memory? These questions had no easy answers, but Vonnie found herself longing for one thing in particular: understanding. The stigma of mental illness loomed large over Rob’s death and made healing difficult. But Vonnie found the common assumptions surrounding suicide to be false. Rob was not “crazy.” He did not choose to take his own life. He was in agony and only wanted the pain to end. His death was a direct result of his mental illness. Why didn’t more people understand this? Over a decade later, Vonnie and her children created the nonprofit organization i understand to help others enduring this same grief and loneliness. Since its founding in 2014, i understand has become a haven of compassionate comfort and a powerful voice in the movement to change the way we talk about suicide so that it can be seen for what it truly is: a terminal effect of mental illness, rather than a deliberate choice. This is the story of how love transformed Vonnie’s brokenness into hope—not only for herself and her family, but for anyone struggling to emerge from the darkness of suicide.

Drawing on extensive clinical and epidemiological evidence, as well as personal experience, Thomas Joiner provides the most coherent and persuasive explanation ever given of why and how people overcome life's strongest instinct, self-preservation. He tests his theory against diverse facts about suicide rates among men and women; white and African-American men; anorexics, athletes, prostitutes, and physicians; members of cults, sports fans, and citizens of nations in crisis.

Suicide presents a real and often tragic puzzle for the family and friends of someone who has committed or attempted suicide. 'Why did they do it?' 'How could they do this?' 'Why did they not see there was help available?' For therapists and clinicians who want to help those who are vulnerable and their families, there are also puzzles that often seem unsolvable. What is it that causes someone to end his or her own life, or to harm themselves: is it down to a person's temperament, the biology of their genes, or to social conditions? What provides the best clue to a suicidal person's thoughts and behaviour? Each type of explanation, seen in isolation, has its drawbacks, so we need to see how they may fit together to give a more complete picture. Cry of Pain examines the evidence from a social, psychological and biological perspective to see if there are common features that might shed light on suicide. Informative and sympathetically written, it is essential reading for therapists and mental health professionals as well as those struggling with suicidal feelings, their families and friends.

For anyone who has experienced the suicide of a loved one, coworker, neighbor, or acquaintance and is seeking information about coping with such a profound loss, this compassionate guide explores the unique responses inherent to their grief. Using the metaphor of the wilderness, the book introduces 10 touchstones to assist the survivor in this naturally complicated and particularly painful journey. The touchstones include opening to the presence of loss, embracing the uniqueness of grief, understanding the six needs of mourning, reaching out for help, and seeking reconciliation over resolution. Learning to identify and rely on each of these touchstones will bring about hope and healing.

A survey of the whole problem of suicide and attempted suicide, presenting the relevant facts and theories against a background of current psychotherapeutic thinking and practice. The book begins with an introduction providing historical and cultural perspectives. The core of the book includes information about suicide numbers, methods and related variables - age, sex, social class - together with cultural and historical comparisons, showing how rates change with other changing features of society. It describes the main theories about causes and motives - sociological, biological, psychodynamic - and combines these perspectives in an account showing among other things the importance of certain patterns of autobiographical memory.

Shneidman presents basic ideas of the common characteristics of suicide. He offers a fresh definition of the phenomenon, which includes direct implications for preventive action.

“[A] fascinating read... Contrary to what the title might suggest, this is an upbeat exploration of suicide with a positive message.” --Jeanine Connor, Therapy Today, December, 2018 This thought-provoking volume offers a distinctly human evolutionary analysis of a distinctly human phenomenon: suicide. Its ‘pain and brain’ model posits animal adaptations as the motivator for suicidal escape, and specific human cognitive adaptations as supplying the means , while also providing a plausible explanation for why only a relatively small number of humans actually take their own lives. The author hypothesizes two types of anti-suicide responses, active and reactive mechanisms prompted by the brain as suicide deterrents. Proposed as well is the intriguing prospect that mental disorders such as depression and addiction, long associated with suicidality, may serve as survival measures. Among the topics covered: · Suicide as an evolutionary puzzle. · The protection against suicide afforded to animals and young children. · Suicide as a by-product of pain and human cognition. · Why psychodynamic defenses regulate the experiencing of painful events. · Links between suicidality and positive psychology. · The anti-suicide role of spiritual and religious belief. In raising and considering key questions regarding this most controversial act, The Evolution of Suicide will appeal to researchers across a range of behavioral science disciplines. At the same time, the book’s implications for clinical intervention and prevention will make it useful among mental health professionals and those involved with mental health policy.