Grief and guilt: losing a loved one to suicide

When Blake's dad died by suicide, it came as a complete shock. Overwhelming grief, combined with confusion and guilt — it uprooted his life. The loss made him rethink his own mental health, and eventually, channel that into the community — fundraising and taking on three world records.

Today, we're talking about suicide bereavement; how it can affect family and friends, its long lasting impacts on mental health, and how to support someone going through the experience. It can be really tricky to talk about suicide, so how do you tackle talking to kids about this kind of loss?

Also, why are rates of suicide not going down, despite millions spent on prevention? And why do some people experience something called post-traumatic growth while others don't?

This episode discusses suicide, grief and mental illness in depth. Please take care while listening.

Guests:

Blake JohnstonFormer pro surferSurf CoachMental Health advocateAuthor, Swellbeing

Associate Professor Karl AndriessenPrincipal Research Fellow, Centre for Mental Health and Community WellbeingMelbourne School of Population and Global HealthUniversity of Melbourne

Tanja HirvonenClinical psychologistChief Executive Officer, ThirriliBoard Director, Australian Indigenous Psychologists AssociationBoard Director, Black Dog Institute

Credits:

• Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
• Producer: Rose Kerr
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Sound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan

Thanks to freesound.org users tim.kahn and juskiddink

Support and resources:

Lifeline 13 11 14

Thirrili 1800 805 801

13 YARN 13 92 76

Beyond Blue  1300 22 4636

More information:

Coping With A Parent's Suicide

Alarming rise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide rates

A better way: suicide prevention in First Nations communities

You can catch up on more episodes of the All in the Mind podcast with journalist and presenter Sana Qadar, exploring the psychology of topics like stress, memory, communication and relationships on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.