Philadelphia Best

’The grief can damage your mental health’
The thing that compounds it when somebody takes their life, is
that it brings with it a whole different level of complexity, the emotions you feel, how they can change from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.”
“It’s this massive sadness that comes over you and you just can’t get out of that, and you feel like life just isn’t worth living,” she says.
Being widowed at all is highly traumatic, but for Angela Sumata, whose husband Mark
took his own life 13 years ago, her grief was almost impossible to process.
If you don’t receive the help you need to navigate through the issues, then absolutely it can lead to mental health issues.”
“We are providing a one-stop shop website to help signpost the bereaved to support,” she says.
It is especially important for people affected by suicide, says Angela, who is now a campaigner and fronted the BBC documentary Life After Suicide.
You feel these hugely strong emotions and the kids do too,” says Sarah Philips, another member of the group.
It certainly does affect your mental health overall,” he says.
Way: Widowed and Young is a peer support organisation, introducing people in similarly
tragic situations to others who can understand their complex grief.
“These days it feels like people just don’t understand what you’re going through, and society’s not geared up to help.

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