When our sibling has died by suicide

UK Helpline: 0 345 123 23 0 4 | tcf.org.uk Thoughts and feelings It is normal to be experiencing a range of intense, complex emotions and upsetting thoughts. These can include sadness, anger, fear, anxiety and confusion. We might experience a mixture of these and they might be inconsistent. Many people describe grief as a rollercoaster of emotions. Read more about the general impact of grief in these leaflets: tcf.org.uk/siblinggriefleaflet tcf.org.uk/livingwithgrief Grief due to suicide can also cause more specific emotional responses: Guilt “I think about my brother and wonder, how could I not see what he was going to do? Why didn’t I pay more attention?” “I feel like, if only I could go back in time and try to sort out the problem, I might have been able to change things.” Of all the types of bereavement, suicide is the one that leads to the most guilt. We might feel in some way responsible. There’s usually no reason for this, but we could feel guilty nonetheless, looking for any reason that we could be to blame. If we were aware of problems, perhaps around substance abuse, mental health problems, addiction or debt, we might blame ourselves for not being supportive or understanding. We might blame ourselves for not telling anyone else something that our sibling had confided to us.