Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, University of Ulm and BKH Günzburg, Germany.
Centre for Implementation Science and Centre for Global Mental Health, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, UK.
Crisis. 2023 Nov;44(6):451-457. doi: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000871. Epub 2022 Jul 8.
Suicide loss is often concealed. While initial evidence suggests that disclosure is important for healthy grieving, observed beneficial effects may depend on social reactions. The current study aimed to identify social reactions and associated consequences experienced by persons who lost a loved one to suicide (i.e., suicide loss survivors). We conducted qualitative interviews with 22 female adult suicide loss survivors focusing on social reactions after suicide loss. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. When talking about their loss with others, suicide loss survivors experienced a broad range of social reactions including compassionate and supportive responses, speechlessness and insecurity, curiosity and gossip, stigmatization, and grieving expectations. Depending on these social reactions, disclosing suicide loss was associated with both negative and positive long-term effects. The findings are limited to the current female sample. Interventions that help suicide loss survivors in finding supportive confidants, combined with public interventions to decrease public suicide stigma and improve the public's readiness to provide helpful support to suicide loss survivors, could improve grieving outcomes among this group.
自杀死亡通常是被隐瞒的。虽然初步证据表明，披露对于健康的悲伤是重要的，但观察到的有益效果可能取决于社会反应。本研究旨在确定因自杀而失去亲人的人（即自杀死亡幸存者）所经历的社会反应和相关后果。我们对 22 名成年女性自杀死亡幸存者进行了定性访谈，重点关注自杀死亡后的社会反应。访谈采用定性内容分析进行转录和分析。当与他人谈论自己的损失时，自杀死亡幸存者经历了广泛的社会反应，包括同情和支持的反应、无语和不安、好奇和八卦、污名化和悲伤的期望。根据这些社会反应，披露自杀死亡与长期的负面和正面影响都有关联。研究结果仅限于目前的女性样本。干预措施可以帮助自杀死亡幸存者找到支持的知己，同时进行公共干预措施以减少公众对自杀的污名化，并提高公众准备向自杀死亡幸存者提供有帮助的支持，这可能会改善这一群体的悲伤结果。
