suicide, mental health, and grief

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In Australia, suicide rates have consistently been found to be higher in rural area than in metropolitan.  

So we need to look at the bigger picture. There seems to be no quick fix solution. 

We need to look and consider suicide prevention stratergies, focusing on the management of specific diseases e.g. depression. Perhaps a sound prevention strategy should definitely take co-morbidity into consideration and include the treatment of at least schizophrenia, depression and alcohol-related disorders as its major components. To this end, increasing public awareness about the treatment of psychiatric illness relevant to suicide.

However the suicide bereaved must not only attempt to cope with the death of someone close to them, but also do so in a likely context of shame, stigma, guilt, blame, and confusion about the responsibility for the death, all of which are frequently associated with bereavement after this type of death.

Living individuals who have lost someone to death by suicide represent mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, spouses, extended family members, fiances, partners, friends, co-workers, classmates, teachers, therapists, neighbors, and many more with whom those who die by suicide had significant relationships. 

The impact of suicide loss range from mild to devastating, depending on many factors. for some, it can literally be life transforming.  

It is important to bring attention to the issues; to organise, advocate and come together to better understand and help those to lessen the stigma surrounding suicide.

Each person who dies by suicide leaves behind an estimated six or more "suicide survivors" -people who have lost someone they care about deeply and are  left struggling to understand.

The death of a loved one is never easy to experience, whether it comes without warning or after a long struggle with illness. But several circumstances set death by suicide apart and make the process of bereavement more challenging. For example:

A traumatic aftermath. Death by suicide is sudden, sometimes violent, and usually unexpected. Depending on the situation, survivors may need to deal with the police or handle press inquiries. While still in shock, they may be asked if they want to visit the death scene. Sometimes officials discourage the visit as too upsetting; other times they encourage it. “Either may be the right decision for an individual. But it can add to the trauma if people feel that they don’t have a choice,” says Jack Jordan, Ph.D., clinical psychologist in Wellesley, MA and co-author of After Suicide Loss: Coping with Your Grief.

Recurring thoughts. A suicide survivor may have recurring thoughts of the death and its circumstances, replaying over and over the loved one’s final moments or their last encounter in an effort to understand — or simply because the thoughts won’t stop coming. Some suicide survivors develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can become chronic if not treated. In PTSD, the trauma is involuntarily re-lived in intrusive images that can create anxiety and a tendency to avoid anything that might trigger the memory.