Saving Ourselves from Suicide--Before and After

How to Ask for Help, Recognize Warning Signs, and Navigate Grief

By: Linda Pacha

Narrated by: Linda Pacha

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Help, Hope, and Healing

A caring, up-close look at suicide with prevention and grief in one best-selling book. Why? They relate more than you realize. Considering how loved ones would grieve might be what keeps someone here. Likewise, grief can become so intense that prevention tools are needed to keep safe those left behind. With a detailed table of contents and bulleted lists, you will use this resource again and again.

Pacha, an attorney with a degree and postgraduate studies in psychology, public speaks about prevention and grief through her nonprofit, Nick's Network of Hope. She lost her teen son, Nick, and holds nothing back to help others.

• Self-Help: Reasons to stay; how to make a safety plan; yell for help and allow it; you're not a burden; people care more than you think; how to reach out when hope is lost; risk factors and warning signs with real-life examples; bullying is a reflection of them, not you; and what Nick would want you to know
• How to Help People Struggling: Okay to ask if suicidal; listen and ask open-ended questions; don't be a cheerleader if more is needed; believe behavior more than words; and seeking professional help
• Grief: Why push on; release guilt and anger; emotions of the first year; second year and beyond; grieving individually and together; new family dynamics; getting back into society; answering difficult questions; parenting surviving kids; keeping your marriage intact; what to avoid; siblings of suicide; and physical effects
• How to Help Those Grieving: Don't avoid; listen but don't try to fix; talk about loved ones; and allow to work through birthdays and anniversaries
• Stigma: Why it exists; ways to reduce it, complexities of mental health; misconceptions of selfishness, cowardliness, and lack of faith; and how stigma of mental health morphs and attaches to survivors
• How to Reduce Pressure: What is the pressure and ways to reduce it; and recommendations for parents and schools
• A Better Tomorrow: Ways for a kinder world; how to reduce bullying; how to teach kids to live with more compassion; and how you can make a difference

Book club discussion questions available on nicksnetworkofhope.org

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2019 Linda Pacha (P)2022 Linda Pacha

Critic reviews

"The author has a crystal clear vision of mental health and the continuums of illness. Saving Ourselves from Suicide is both a personal journey and warning to families. The author is clearly on a mission to save others from the tragedy that befell her family. It is invaluable." - Christine Z. Somervill, PhD, Director of Programs, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), Cook County North Suburban, Chicagoland

"Saving Ourselves from Suicide is a touching account of one family's survival after losing their son and brother to suicide. While this is a loss that none of us would wish on anyone, Saving Ourselves from Suicide gives us a meaningful glimpse into the powerful loss and the many things we can do to support each other and our loved ones through struggle." - Alison Malmon, Founder/Executive Director, Active Minds

"Linda gives details about the ways she and her family grieved differently and outlines the methods that they used to cope with Nick's traumatic death. The common thread throughout the book is Linda's call for all to be kinder and more compassionate to one another, to search for understanding, and to be aware of how our actions impact others." - Rev. Charles T. Rubey, Founder/Director, Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide (LOSS) nondenominational program, a division of Catholic Charities

A heart opening must read that Can save your life or a loved one

The book is wonderful but listening to Linda Pacha read their story takes it to another level of understanding. You feel you are sitting with her sharing a warm cup of tea and crying with her.
Somehow she has made her heartbreaking story hopeful for the rest of us.

Great book

This is a great book if you are looking for a prospective and insight from a mother’s point of view about her son’s suicide. I bought this book because I wanted some answers on why my brother’s suicide happened. This book did help me have a greater understanding on why someone might have suicidal thoughts and how to better deal with other victims of suicide. This book was more specific to an individual event that I found helpful but suicide reasons are so vast one book can’t cover them all. If you are a mother of a suicide victim than this is a must read.

A bravely told story of love

Bravely and articulately told, this is a story of one family’s tragic experience with the suicide of a beloved family member. Linda shares the story of her son, who tragically took his own young  life, the events leading up to his suicide, the days immediately following, and the journey of their grief. Using their family’s experience and hindsight, Linda offers insight and information for survivors, those struggling with mental health, those who are grieving, those whose loved ones are struggling, and friends and supporters of all of the above. This book is truly a work of love, not just for Linda’s beautiful son, but also for humankind. It is a story of faith in God and faith in a society that must move forward toward kindness and empathy. And it is a story of hope. Thank you to the Pacha family for this gift.

A must-read for all parents, educators and counselors

As challenging as this topic can be, it should be required reading for all parents of elementary school and older children. Linda’s complete transparency brings the whole story of their son’s life and tragic death to life so much more than a more academically written book on the subject. Yet, the crux of the book is ALL about specific approaches to better parenting in general and specifically dealing with possible or proven emotional troubles.

Counselors of all types should “prescribe” this book to their patients. In addition, teachers should assign this as required material for courses dealing with either this slice of mental or a more holistic study of health in general, especially in teens and young adults. Finally, “survivors” of suicide should either find this on their own or be given a copy by someone who cares about them.

Outstanding writing on one of the most difficult subjects imaginable by an author with the greatest credentials of being a mom who lived through the pain of her son’s suicide but also with an undergraduate degree and post-graduate studies in psychology.