TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 443 It is also important to note that suicide survivors might not differ significantly from other bereaved groups regarding general mental health, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and anxiety (Sveen & Walby, 2008). Examining the impact of suicide on surviving military family members may provide important information on minimizing negative consequences, including possible survivor suicide. Military deaths are often sudden, unexpected, traumatic and/or violent in nature, and the family is conditioned to anticipate these types of deaths. In contrast, death by suicide is not anticipated and might not be handled well among military families (Martin, Ghahramanlou-Holloway, Lou, & Tucciarone, 2009). Suicide within the military culture is a traumatic as well as a unique experience. Service members and their families struggle with the visible and invisible wounds of war and the aftermath that combat deaths leave for the survivors. When a service member’s trauma leads to suicide, the military community is less trained and conditioned to process the grief than when death occurs as a direct result of military service (Zhang & Jia, 2009). Stress plays a role in the grief process within the military culture when it relates to suicide. The chief identifying feature of military culture is warfare, which in turn leads to the claiming of human lives (Siebrecht, 2011). Siebrecht argued that bereavement can only be overcome if people adopt a more rational attitude and grant death its natural place in life. Association with the military ensures that most families will have to experience some form of bereavement and many forms of loss during times of war (Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker, 2002). Military men and woman are less equipped than the general population when it comes to their culture’s acceptance of outward demonstration or sharing of the emotional experience of grief (Doka, 2005). Stigma Historically, the stigma of suicide has been present in society (Cvinar, 2005). The biggest obstacles that families with members who have completed suicide confront are acts of informal social disapproval. The surviving family may be suspected of being partly blameworthy in a suicide death and consequently may be subjected to informal isolation and shunning (Bleed, 2007). The stigma of suicide can be subtle. It can be manifested in overt actions taken against the survivors (i.e., placing blame on the family), as well as by omitted actions (i.e., not receiving life insurance), which are probably far more common. When people experience the untimely loss of a family member, there can be feelings of being offended, wounded or abandoned (Neimeyer & Jordan, 2002). The stigmatization experienced by survivors may complicate their bereavement process (Cvinar, 2005; Jordan, 2001; McIntosh, 1993). This complexity results in communication issues, social isolation, projection of guilt, blaming of others and scapegoating (Harwood, Hawton, Hope, & Jacoby, 2002; Lindemann & Greer, 1953). There is a lack of research in the professional literature addressing the grief of surviving military family members impacted by the death, including suicide, of a loved one (Lamorie, 2011). Suicide and Bereavement Jordan (2001) researched suicide bereavement and concluded that there are several underlying reasons that it differs from other types of mourning. Jordan summarized that “there is considerable evidence that suicide survivors are viewed more negatively by others and by themselves” (p. 93) and that suicide “is distinct in three significant ways: the thematic content of grief, the social processes surrounding the survivor, and the impact suicide has on family systems” (p. 91). In reviewing the social processes surrounding suicide, Jordan’s analysis supports those of Worden (1991) and Ness and Pfeffer (1990), saying that “there is considerable evidence that survivors feel more isolated