One thing that has bothered me for a while is when people use the term "survivor" to refer to someone who had a loved one kill themselves. I've seen some people call them "suicide survivors" and more psychology-oriented, trying-to-be-politically-correct people call them "suicide loss survivors" but it just seems so wrong to me. It's always sad when someone you care about dies (and I am not trying to minimize others' grief), but saying that they're a "survivor" to me implies that they lived through something that had the potential to be deadly.
I've thought that people might argue that if you know someone that killed themselves, sometimes that could lead to having your own suicidal thoughts, but to that I would say that they survived the suicidal thoughts, not the loved one killing themselves. And when someone loses a loved one to cancer, you don't call them a cancer loss survivor... and you certainly don't call them a cancer survivor, since that title is for a person that has actually experienced and lived through cancer.
After trying to kill myself about 10 years ago, I saw a book that was titled for suicide survivors and I thought maybe I could learn something from it. I read the description and found out it was for people who had loved ones kill themselves, which is when my annoyance with the term began. It makes sense to me that I wouldn't be called a suicide survivor, because by nature you can't survive a suicide, so the term "suicide attempt survivor" seems fitting (and it seems like what the psychology-oriented, trying-to-be-policitally-correct people are using).
To me, it seems that using the terms "suicide survivor" and "suicide loss survivor" to refer to people who have had loved ones die of suicide is just one more way society makes someone's mental health about other people instead of about themself.
I've heard a few other people that shared this opinion, but I'd like to hear what more people think about these terms. What do you think?
I've thought that people might argue that if you know someone that killed themselves, sometimes that could lead to having your own suicidal thoughts, but to that I would say that they survived the suicidal thoughts, not the loved one killing themselves. And when someone loses a loved one to cancer, you don't call them a cancer loss survivor... and you certainly don't call them a cancer survivor, since that title is for a person that has actually experienced and lived through cancer.
After trying to kill myself about 10 years ago, I saw a book that was titled for suicide survivors and I thought maybe I could learn something from it. I read the description and found out it was for people who had loved ones kill themselves, which is when my annoyance with the term began. It makes sense to me that I wouldn't be called a suicide survivor, because by nature you can't survive a suicide, so the term "suicide attempt survivor" seems fitting (and it seems like what the psychology-oriented, trying-to-be-policitally-correct people are using).
To me, it seems that using the terms "suicide survivor" and "suicide loss survivor" to refer to people who have had loved ones die of suicide is just one more way society makes someone's mental health about other people instead of about themself.
I've heard a few other people that shared this opinion, but I'd like to hear what more people think about these terms. What do you think?
