Suicide & Brain Pain

The brain processes the emotional hurt of losing a person you love through suicide much as it processes physical pain. The term “a broken heart” is real—loss and perceived rejection is physically painful. In response, the brain releases its natural opiate, endorphins, to help you feel better and to manage the pain. Going through the grieving process for the loss also can help you deal with this social-emotional pain. The good news is that even though you do not have the individual with you in tangible, three-dimensional presence, you still carry them within you. When you have been close to another human being and love him or her very much, their memory is filed inside the nucleus of your cells. You carry the memory of your loved one within you for as long as those cells are alive—which is as long as you are alive.