Why? When Both My Parents Took Their Lives

Why? When Both My Parents Took Their Lives
Author: Yin (SOS)
Publisher: Epigram Books
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2008
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 9810732767

When she was only seven, Yin's mother took her own life. Forty years later her father jumped to his death. This is the story of how she survived her parents' suicides. “When someone dear to us dies through suicide, we are left with the agonising ordeal of having to survive the heart-rending loss. It traumatises us and leaves us with a profound struggle to make sense of the suicide and learn to live again. This first-hand narration promises not only to enlighten, but also serves as a balm for those working through their own loss and grief.”— from the foreword by Anthony Yeo

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die
Author: Sarah J. Robinson
Publisher: WaterBrook
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0593193539

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Running on Empty

Running on Empty
Author: Jonice Webb
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 161448242X

A large segment of the population struggles with feelings of being detached from themselves and their loved ones. They feel flawed, and blame themselves. Running on Empty will help them realize that they're suffering not because of something that happened to them in childhood, but because of something that didn't happen. It's the white space in their family picture, the background rather than the foreground. This will be the first self-help book to bring this invisible force to light, educate people about it, and teach them how to overcome it.

Two Weeks of Life

Two Weeks of Life
Author: Eleanor Clift
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2009-02-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0465012426

What has become known as the Schiavo affair-the death of a brain-damaged woman in Florida in 2005, and the controversy that surrounded it-was a revelatory moment in American society. For the first time, the nation got a clear view of both the fanaticism gripping the religious right and the political power it could bring to bear even when the vast majority of the country disagreed with it. But it was also a turning point: a moment when America seemed to glimpse a dangerous radicalism, and began to pull back. Eleanor Clift witnessed this event from a unique vantage point. At the same time that Schiavo was dying in her Florida hospice, Clift's husband, Tom Brazaitis, was dying of cancer at home; the two passed away within a day of each other. Two Weeks of Life alternates between these two stories to provide a moving commentary on how we deal, or fail to deal, with dying in modern America.

Stepping Back from the Ledge

Stepping Back from the Ledge
Author: Laura Trujillo
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0593157613

In this “seismically moving memoir” (The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice), one woman asks a seemingly impossible question in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide: How do you mourn a loved one as you repair the injuries they inflicted? “Laura Trujillo resurfaces from the dark ‘sub-basement’ of despair with assurances for us all: There is hope. There is healing. Always, there is love. This book will save lives.”—Connie Schultz, author of The Daughters of Erietown ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker Laura Trujillo had been close to her mother for most of her adult life, raising her four children within a few miles of their beloved grandmother’s Phoenix home. But just three months after moving her young family to Cincinnati for a new job, Laura receives shocking news: Her mother had taken her own life—by jumping off a ledge into the Grand Canyon, a place Laura knew her mother had always loved. Laura and her mother had shared a profound and special bond, yet each had also kept from the other the deepest truths about their lives. As an adult, Laura finally broke her silence about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a teenager at the hands of her stepfather—a secret Laura had buried to protect her mother. After her mother’s death, Laura embarks on an emotional odyssey, searching for clues that could explain the depression, intergenerational trauma, and shared heartbreaks in her family. When she returns to the Grand Canyon, it becomes an oasis that nurtures Laura’s search for redemption and peace. As Laura wrestles with her feelings, she forges a new path forward. Moving and intimate, powerfully told, Stepping Back from the Ledge is a remarkable exploration of the bond between a mother and daughter, and of the hope that can come from facing the truth.

Too Much Loss: Coping with Grief Overload

Too Much Loss: Coping with Grief Overload
Author: Alan Wolfelt
Publisher: Companion Press
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1617222887

Grief overload is what you feel when you experience too many significant losses all at once, in a relatively short period of time, or cumulatively. In addition to the deaths of loved ones, such losses can also include divorce, estrangement, illness, relocation, job changes, and more. Our minds and hearts have enough trouble coping with a single loss, so when the losses pile up, the grief often seems especially chaotic and defeating. The good news is that through intentional, active mourning, you can and will find your way back to hope and healing. This compassionate guide will show you how.

Childless by Marriage

Childless by Marriage
Author: Sue Fagalde Lick
Publisher:
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2021-06
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9781733685238

First you marry a man who does not want children. He cheats and you divorce him. Then you marry the love of your life and find out he does not want to have children with you either. The three he has are more than enough. Although you always wanted to be a mother, you decide he is worth the sacrifice, expecting to have a long happy life together. But that's not what happens. This is the story of how a woman becomes childless by marriage and how it affects every aspect of her life. This is the book of my heart, the one I had to write. Ever since I realized I was not going to have children, I have felt recurring grief and an emptiness in my heart. I am different from most women, but I have found that I am not alone. There are many of us childless women, and I think it's important to share our stories about what it's like when you don't have children in a world where most girls grow up to become mothers. I hope this book offers comfort to those who are childless and understanding to those who are not. If it makes you smile here and there, even better.

Open to Hope

Open to Hope
Author: Gloria Horsley
Publisher: Open to Hope
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2018-08-15
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781945549106

Whether a death is sudden or anticipated, losing a loved one shakes us to our very core, destroying our belief in a just, safe, and predictable world. Grief often changes us quickly both physically and mentally. It is like being kidnapped and suddenly transported to a foreign land without luggage, a passport, or the language to make sense of what's happening. Even if you have a road map for getting through the pain and anguish, you still have to take the trip. The purpose of this book is to help you find threads of hope that will assist your recovery and help you carry on. By sharing inspirational stories, personal experiences, and professional advice from contributors to theOpen to Hope website, we trust that you will be comforted and inspired by learning how others dealt with their losses, what they saw as roadblocks, and how they handled them as well as what it has taken for them to not only survive, but thrive. We want to help you resume leading the life that you were meant to live--a life of satisfaction and one driven by a belief in your own personal power for change.

Emotionally Naked

Emotionally Naked
Author: Anne Moss Rogers
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1119758300

Discover effective strategies to help prevent youth suicide In Emotionally Naked: A Teacher's Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk, trainer, speaker, and suicide loss survivor Anne Moss Rogers, and clinical social worker and researcher, Kimberly O'Brien, PhD, LICSW, empower middle and high school educators with the knowledge and skills to leverage their relationships with students to reduce this threat to life. The purpose of this book is not to turn teachers into therapists but given the pervasive public health problem of suicide in our youth, it's a critical conversation that all educators need to feel comfortable having. Educators will learn evidence-based concepts of suicide prevention, plus lesser known innovative strategies and small culture shifts for the classroom to facilitate connection and healthy coping strategies, the foundation of suicide prevention. Included is commentary from teachers, school psychologists, experts in youth suicidology, leaders from mental health nonprofits, program directors, and tudents. In addition, readers will find practical tips, and sample scripts, with innovative activities that can be incorporated into teaching curricula. You'll learn about: The teacher's role in suicide prevention, intervention, postvention, collaboration The different and often cryptic ways students indicate suicidality What to do/say when a student tells you they are thinking of suicide Small shifts that can create a suicide-prevention classroom/school environment How to address a class of grieving students and the empty desk syndrome Link to a download of resources, worksheets, activities, scripts, quizzes, and more Who is it for: Middle/high school teachers and educators, school counselors, nurses, psychologists, coaches, and administrators, as well as parents who wish to better understand the complex subject of youth suicide.

The Adult Orphan Club

The Adult Orphan Club
Author: Flora Baker
Publisher: Flora Baker
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2020-06-20
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1838063501

A vulnerable, honest and deeply personal guide to finding your way through grief. Flora Baker was only twenty when her mum died suddenly of cancer. Her coping strategy was simple: ignore the magnitude of her loss. But when her dad became terminally ill nine years later, Flora was forced to confront the reality of grief. She had to accept that her life had changed forever. In The Adult Orphan Club, Flora draws on a decade of experience with grief and parent loss to explore all the chaotic ways that grief affects us, and how we can learn to navigate it. Written with the newly bereaved in mind and packed with practical tips and advice, this book guides the reader through every step of their grief journey and opens up the death conversation in an honest, heartfelt and accessible way. Whether you’re grieving your own loss or supporting someone else through grief, The Adult Orphan Club will show you that you’re not broken, and you’re not alone.