For over 2 years I’ve been taking Xanax to deal with my seizures and REAL diagnosed ptsd and anxiety based on my upbringing. After my second seizure others around me started dying from things such as cancer and gun related incidents (I live in Chicago it is a common occurrence). The one that hit me the most was seeing an old friend in an open casket after he had shot himself in the head and since that day (oct.11 last year) I brought painkillers into my life and just feel stuck, confused, and complacent. If anyone has any advice feel free to speak your mind.

Hello everyone!

I've been navigating my grief journey all alone after the passing of a close family member. And I am desperate to find any helpful online resources or books? Could anyone please recommend resources that have been helpful for you? I cam across an app called "Grief Works", which I found to be extremely helpful and now I'm trying to find something similar. Has anyone used this app or a similar one? They also host monthly free webinars with a psychotherapist (Julia Samuel). She wrote a book about grief, and I'm also searching for something similar to it.

So, if any of you have found other apps or books that have been helpful, I'd love to hear about them Thanks in advance!.

Hello. I wanted to share a resource that has been beneficial for those grieving a loss. It has seemed particularly helpful in supporting those grieving loss due to addiction and suicide, which are especially complicated situations to work through.

This is a program that is completely free and available without strings here: www.spiritaltars.com

It consists of creating a memorial altar to the lost one based on prompts that has the mourner/s exploring the spirit of their lost one and the relationships they shared. The program explores the complexities of people struggling, and ultimately losing their fight. And it helps unpack the emotional turmoil of the survivors.

And its all in a very simple program that can fit into busy lives.

I wish you well.

My best friend was an addict. Was. He didn’t get clean, he died. His dad found him dead in his bathroom with a needle in his arm. Heroin was his main squeeze but he did everything under the sun just to see if he could keep off the heroin. Multiple rehab stints, jail, mental facilities, halfway houses, suboxone, shrooms, lsd, ice, you name it. He had a heart of gold, and belonged on a stage. But he died before he could ever see the stage. I’m having a hard time not blaming myself. I know it’s not rational. He’d been using almost half his life and had od’d countless times already. This was the last. He just didn’t know it yet. But every single day I wonder what would have happened if I had just picked up the phone. Like maybe, if I had told him how much I believed in him, how I knew he could achieve his dreams, maybe he would still be here. I don’t really know how to deal with this. I miss him so much. I’m pretty sure he tried to call me before he passed, and for me that is the one phone call I will regret missing for the rest of my life. Because it feels like he’s not here, because I wasn’t there for him. I just want him to know I’m sorry. When he’d get scared he was going to use, or when he used and was afraid of dying, he would call me, and we would talk for hours. About nothing and everything. Sometimes we would just sit silently, because it was just comforting for him knowing I was there, and I understood and cared about him anyways, and that’s all he needed. I would do anything to have just one more conversation with him. If I could go back to that day, I would turn my ringer on before I went to sleep, and maybe he would still be here today. What is this? Survivors guilt? Is there a name for this? How am I supposed to cope with feeling at fault? Anyways, if anyone reads this, I appreciate it.

Personally this week I just hit the one month mark since my friend passed, in some ways I feel better, in others I feel worse. The realization of how permanent it is really gets to me sometimes but I'm also feeling moments of acceptance and appreciation for the life around me. I also have been spending some time making peace with the untimeliness of his death, he deserved more time and he deserved better support but death is not about fairness. Slowly making progress to releasing ideas of guilt.

Feel free to share thoughts/achievements, just wanted to check on how people are doing 🌻

Hi everyone,

My name is Adam. I first want to say that I'm sorry for each of your losses. I lost my beloved thirty-year-old sister to a fentanyl overdose in 2016, and it devastated me and my family. I know there are so many stories like mine, and in part this motivated me to pursue a career in reporting.

Now I am a graduate student at Columbia School of Journalism, and I'm looking to hear from those who lost someone to an opioid overdose, particularly those who had difficulty seeking treatment due to pandemic-related healthcare backlogs for prescriptions or insurance issues.

Any perspectives would be appreciated. Feel free to reach out here, or through message, and we can take it from there. Thank you for reading this, and please take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

If it wasn’t for so many kind people in that sub I would never have thought to start this one. Seeing people communicate their feelings and experiences really has helped me through my grief and if anyone here has not checked them out I strongly encourage it 💙

r/GriefSupport

Mikal Arion Kennedy 23 years old , Donovan Goodwin 25 years old , Jacob Mundaca 25 years old , Victoria Adame 23 years old , Alexandra Longoria 24 years old. These are all people I know either personally or friend of friends. They have all passed away in the last 2 years. It is really an epidemic and it’s not getting any better. People need to boycott fake pills.

Because I do. I feel like there could be some more safety nets put in place, especially for those who could be considered high risk. I know we can’t force people into or to stick with recovery, but something needs to change. These places make a whole lot of money and so many people enter rehab multiple times. And sometimes insurance companies will only cover rehab for two weeks. Two weeks is not enough time at all for most people, especially for those who have already released several times. Should insurance companies be held liable? How could we improve any of this?

Any thoughts?

I find myself pretty lost and detached from my grief. I find it helpful to hear from others with similar experiences. Everything about this feels pretty shocking still. And real and unreal at the same time. Thank you

https://www.reddit.com/r/GriefSupport/comments/s394fz/39_seconds/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Losing someone to overdose is considerably complex. From the unexpectedness, to the potential guilt or regret from feeling or wishing you could or should have done more, to the secrets and lies involved in addiction, to the shame attached to addiction before and after loss. The shock of the reality when losing someone so quickly and unexpectedly is difficult to process. This is a group dedicated to this specific type of grief, which unfortunately had become all to common.