Category: Episodes

Many people are affected by suicide and you may have experienced the suicide of a loved one – a partner, a sibling, a parent, or a friend. It can be incredibly hard to make sense of what has happened, how you can cope with it, and how to recover from it.

This podcast aims to help people like you through this difficult time. We want to provide support, conversation, and comfort to people affected by suicide. This is for anyone affected by a suicide death. But, as rates of suicide in the LGBTIQA+ communites are significantly higher than the general population we’ll be taking the time to talk about how this experience can be different and more complex for people in these communities or their loved ones.

In this first episode we discuss why we need to talk openly about suicide and suggest some safe language we can all use when talking about it. Knowing how to talk about it in a safe way that might help others while minimising the risks to people around us is the key. Talking about it helps to reduce the stigma around suicide, and it might even mean people are more willing to reach out and get help.

This episode discusses the Mindframe guidelines when talking about suicide: https://mindframe.org.au/suicide/communicating-about-suicide

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

In this episode, our experts are asked that question that you have probably asked or at least thought about: how long will I grieve for? As you might expect, the answer to this question is not straightforward. While there is no timeline on grief and no clear answer to that question, you might be able to take some solace from what Louise says in this episode: “Grief is the price of love. How could we not grieve someone who we have loved and who loved us”.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

Meet four people who have lost a loved one to suicide: Alice, Beau, Lara, and Peter.

It takes a lot of courage to share such a personal experience and to speak so openly. Even though each of their stories are different, there are lots of common feelings and themes that come through. Listening to their stories can be difficult and heartbreaking, but there might be a level of comfort and reassurance for you in knowing that you are not alone in experiencing these things.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

You can also listen to the full-length interviews recorded with Alice, Beau, Lara, and Peter.

This episode discusses what you might experience when you are grieving a suicide death. Not only in the initial period after the death, but the weeks, months, and indeed years afterwards. Everybody’s experience is different but there are some similar experiences that people have. It may be the case that the things you normally do to make yourself feel better may not work and you might need to try different things. But know that you need to take it easy on yourself and show some self compassion because what you are experiencing is probably the most traumatic thing you have been through in your life.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

In this episode, we talk about the stigma associated with suicide.

Stigma is a mark of shame that people project onto others that is misguided and born from a lack of knowledge, prejudice, and discrimination. When talking about suicide, people often feel that there is something shameful about it, or sinful, or even selfish. Both the person who suicided and those they leave behind can be affected by this stigma. Even the language some people use, for example, “committing suicide”, implies there is an element of criminality in the death, that they have done something wrong.

There is also another layer of stigma that members of the LGBTIQA+ communities experience, and one of the consequences of this is that it can be harder for us to connect with and get support from family and professional services.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

Triggers are a huge thing that people deal with when grieving a suicide death. Everybody we interviewed for this podcast talked about triggers, and you are probably hyper aware of them too. A noise, a specific location, a smell, something you see on TV, a season of the year, a passing remark from someone you don’t know; these and so many other things can be triggers that uncontrollably draw you back into your grief and that acute feeling of trauma. Planning for expected triggers and maybe limiting your exposure to them can be a helpful tactic. How triggers will impact you will change over time just like how your grief will change over time too.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

In this episode, we talk about how to deal with blame. Sometimes people can blame someone else for a person’s death or attribute someone’s suicide to a particular life event or single issue. But the cause of someone’s suicide is not usually a single thing or event and is far more complex. It is also unfair to blame someone, even if it is the person who has died.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

In this episode, we talk about guilt, that feeling that you are responsible or to blame for the suicide in some way. That there was something that you did or didn’t do that caused the death.

Guilt is something that most people go through when grieving a suicide death and how it manifests itself can vary in lots of different ways. What is important to remember is that you are not alone in feeling this guilt and that it is normal, but most importantly, you are not responsible or to blame. Being kind to yourself and giving yourself time to come to terms with this is really important.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

There are a lot of occasions that we celebrate in our lives, things like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Christmas and other religious holidays. But when you’ve lost somebody to suicide, these events can be very hard. What was once was a celebration or happy occasion can be very sad and painful. How you remember your loved one who has died at these times may be different depending on where you are with your grief. But thinking about how you might include your loved one in these occasions and having realistic expectations for you and others around you might help a little.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

This episode is all about the one year anniversary. When you are grieving any death, the one year anniversary can be a very upsetting time. But with a death by suicide there are other things that can also make it traumatic in different ways. Planning for the anniversary can help a lot and sometimes the anniversary itself is not as intense as the lead up. Talking to your community about what you are planning can be a good way to make sure you have support on and around the day, and if you are seeing a counsellor organising a few extra sessions is a good self-care strategy.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14