Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors

The Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, provides healing support for people who have lost loved ones to suicide.

Blog > Emotions & Challenges > The Alliance of Hope Forum: Where Strangers Became My Lifeline

The Alliance of Hope Forum: Where Strangers Became My Lifeline

July 23, 2026July 23, 2026Author: Wisdom From Our Community

3 comments

In those awful first weeks, the Alliance of Hope (AOH) Forum gave me a way to say how devastated I was feeling, to tell my story, and to voice my anguish. My “real life” support system, family, friends, and community, is wonderful, but I never felt comfortable showing them how broken I felt. I was, and still am, inconsolable. On the AOH Forum, the other voices were commiserating and painfully honest, yet also deeply encouraging.

Later, the forum allowed me to vent, work through questions with others, and get out of my own head while engaging with other survivors and hopefully giving back the support I had received. Now I am at the four-month mark. I’ve seen so many new members join and read more stories of unimaginable heartbreak, perseverance, and hope.

Healing Through Connection

As sad as it is to learn how startlingly prevalent suicide is in such a deeply personal way, my newest healing revelations have come from seeing myself and my lost loved one mirrored in so many others. Connecting with people whose backgrounds, ages, and other traits may differ, but whose suicide loss follows an eerily similar journey, has helped me quiet my own guilty replays, paralyzing regrets, and unanswerable questions.

The path to acceptance has become easier now that I can see so clearly how many others share this same tragic road. It’s not just the sadness and grief, but the confusion, betrayal, frustration, and longing that comes with loving and losing someone who ended their own life, suffered from depression and/or addiction, or simply had a very difficult time with life.

I can’t blame my loved one now that I know he wasn’t the only one with that infuriating, irresistible mix of sensitivity, generosity, love, impulsivity, delusion, and destruction. I can’t blame myself knowing that other parents, girlfriends, siblings, friends, and loved ones were ultimately unable to prevent the same terrible outcome despite their efforts.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for telling your stories, sharing your pain, and bearing your souls. It helps.

This essay was originally posted on the Alliance of Hope Forum by a member who wishes to remain anonymous. It has been reprinted with permission.

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Wisdom From Our Community

"Wisdom From Our Community" posts were originally shared on the Alliance of Hope Forum for Suicide Loss Survivors and are reprinted with the authors' permission. Written by fellow survivors, these essays reflect the compassion, resilience, and understanding that define our community.

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3 thoughts on “The Alliance of Hope Forum: Where Strangers Became My Lifeline”

Eileen Vorbach Collins says:

January 24, 2024 at 4:13 pm

Thank you for sharing this. Alliance of Hope was not around in my own awful first weeks but finding others who understood this terrible loss was helpful to me as well.

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Ms. J says:

February 9, 2022 at 10:59 am

“I can’t blame my guy now that I know he wasn’t the only infuriating irresistible mix of sensitive, giving, loving, impulsive, delusional, and destructive. I can’t blame myself knowing that other parents, girlfriends, siblings, friends, and others were ultimately unable to avoid the same terrible outcome despite their efforts.”

I have related to many things said and felt on in this forum and in the blog(s) over the last almost four years, but seldom as strongly as your words above. These words speak right to my heart and are, even if tragic, a blessing to my ears. I want you to know they helped me immensely today because you stated (what I didn’t even know I felt was) a sad, yet undeniable truth–it seems more bearable and there is great aid in knowing others understand. More importantly in my case, there is also great aid in hearing again and again we should not blame ourselves.

I will carry this with me because this is both so poignant and I cannot (for once) deny what you’ve said. I always make up a reason why I am still to blame, but your words, I know, speak the truth and do so with such compassion. It gives me a perspective that works, as something here at AOH always does.

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Susan Myette says:

January 30, 2022 at 8:28 am

Thank you for putting into words my feelings and thoughts about how healing, accepting, and supportive Alliance of Hope has been for me since losing my son, Jason, 26 months ago. I needed so much support and ‘help’ in the early days of this horrific journey, and family and friends just couldn’t be of much help through no fault of their own. Who can understand this devastating loss other than those who have lived it? I thankfully found AOH six months after Jason passed away and I’ve been here ever since. I’m so sorry for your loss and everyone’s devastating experience caused by the loss of a loved one by suicide. Thank you again and I’m sorry. Deep breaths.

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