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When someone you love died by suicide

For people in the United States who lost someone to suicide, last night or many years ago, and for the people standing beside them. Who answers, at any hour. What the first days hold: the police, seeing them, their belongings. What to tell people, and what to tell a child. What you may be feeling. “Why,” and the guilt. People who have been through it and will talk to you. Counseling. Help for military and veteran families. Getting through the days. How to show up for someone. And the words to say when you call. Nothing here describes how anyone died. One thing at a time.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The facts come from pages read on October 2, 2026: the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (I’ve lost someone; Practical information for immediately after a loss; Healing Conversations; Find a support group; International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day; Suicide bereavement trained clinicians; Suicide loss resources; and its articles 10 ways to support a loved one who has lost someone to suicide, 2016, and What to do if your family won’t talk about your suicide loss, 2020); the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (its suicide loss support page); the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA resources for survivors of suicide loss, last updated November 15, 2024; the Vet Centers’ bereavement counseling page; and the front pages of Uniting for Suicide Postvention); MedlinePlus, from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (the summaries of its Suicide and Bereavement pages); the Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors (its home page and its pages for new survivors, on its forum, on children and teens, and the index of its emotions and challenges section); and the home pages of Friends for Survival and The Compassionate Friends, the contact page of The Compassionate Friends, and the resource-library page of the Dougy Center. Crisis Text Line, FindTreatment.gov and the SAMHSA National Helpline were read on October 1, 2026 for our other pages. All of these except VA, MedlinePlus, FindTreatment.gov and SAMHSA are private organisations describing their own services; several ask for donations, and we have no connection with any of them. We did not call or text any line, ask for a visit, search any directory, join any forum or group, or attend any event. We could not read the booklets Surviving a Suicide Loss and Children, Teens and Suicide Loss (they open as page-turning books), and did not read any book, any research, any statistics, the toolkits for schools and workplaces, any state’s law, or anything about insurance, cleaning a home, or prolonged grief disorder; where the page links to one of these, it says we did not read it. The page gives no numbers about suicide, never describes how anyone died, has no questionnaire and gives no score. Lines marked “Ours” are our own suggestions. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a treatment provider or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].