A guide to Halloween and suicide bereavement
By Jess Wilkins, Suicide Bereavement Advisor
‘Tis the season for longer nights, costumes, decorations and parties.
But as with all holidays, Halloween can signify a passage of time, cast our minds back to previous years and hold potentially triggering themes to suicide bereavement. This gentle guide will hopefully offer some lightness in navigating this October.
Movies and media
Halloween has a large media presence and may feel unavoidable across social media, films and TV. Jumpscares, murder and suicide can become increasingly unexpected events in everyday media and provide triggers for our own stories.
Children
If we have lost a child or young person to suicide, seeing other families enjoy Halloween can evoke mixed feelings of sadness, loss or anger. Alternatively, if we have children that want to celebrate, we may not be able to offer the same energy or enthusiam. Engaging in the laughter, treats and fun may just emphasise the heaviness we feel.
Costumes & decorations
There are a wide range of costumes that appear every year, however stereotypically these centre around themes of fear and death and can include make up of blood and bones. Also, decorations of skeletons, tombstones and ghosts can feel overwhelmeing for weeks around the event.
What can we do?
It may be frustrating that others do not automatically see Halloween through the same lens after losing someone to suicide and there is no ‘right way’ to go about this holiday.
You may want to pull the curtains and turn off the lights, let loose at a party, reach out for support groups or approach a neighbour about the sensitivities of their decorations. It can be hard to not feel that triggering events are a ‘step backwards’, but perhaps this is simply a short-term wave that leaves us feeling a bit heavier for a while.
However, we do have choices over how we protect our emotional wellbeing this season. You are not alone this Halloween, keep talking.
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