How could a season so exuberantly optimistic and bursting with new life as spring be a peak time for suicide? It seems impossibly cruel, but according to The Guardian, the northern hemisphere witnesses a May/June rise in suicides and the southern hemisphere reports a comparable trend in November, their sunnier period. Adam Kaplan, professor of […]
Today being World Suicide Prevention Day, I am reaching out to those who’ve been bereaved by suicide. As someone whose brother took his life in 2004, I understand all too well why people who have lost beloveds to suicide are at risk of following in their footsteps. As I describe in my book – Did […]
Fifteen years ago, I lost my younger brother, Steve, to suicide. In the early months and years that followed, I often felt badly that I didn’t do enough to prevent his death. Thanks to counselling, and writing a book about his death and the aftermath (Did You Know I Would Miss You? – The Transformational […]
Unfortunately, yes. In the past, it was commonly believed that suicide rates spiked at Christmas, but studies reveal that they drop during the holidays and then peak for the first few weeks of the new year. Researchers surmise that, for those who are already struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, the Christmas promise of peace, […]
Today is Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in Mexico. While it coincides with Hallowe’en, it is not about fright and mischief, but about showing love and respect for deceased family members. The festival dates back several thousand years to the Aztec, Toltec, Nuatl and other Indigenous peoples of Mexico, who viewed death […]
If there’s one thing that can’t be slotted into a timetable, it’s grief. Many of us are not able to deal with our grief immediately after our loss. The circumstances of the death may have been violent or otherwise difficult to deal with, we may be traumatized by what has occurred, and/or we may feel […]