Chasing Death: Losing a Child to Suicide

Book excerpt: On Halloween 2002, Jan Andersen's 20-year-old son Kristian found a permanent solution to his misery. Suicide. He wrote two suicide notes, took an overdose of Heroine and died on Friday 1st November 2002, leaving behind a one-year-old daughter. The stigma, helplessness and unanswered questions that accompany the suicide of a loved one can isolate grieving families in a wilderness of relentless, silent torture. Chasing Death attempts to put candid, but heartrendering words but often the incommunicable pain that the surving families endure, not only through the telling of Kristian's story, but through the experiences of other families mourning the loss of a child to suicide. It covers topics that will not be found in detached and academic grief recovery books, but does include coping strategies.