Linda Pacha - Saving Ourselves from Suicide--Before and After: How to Ask for Help, Recognize Warning Signs, and Navigate Grief

Testimonials for
Saving Ourselves from Suicide

In graphic, painful detail, the author chronicles the unraveling of her son Nicks short life and the reasoning and rationalizing of choices he and their family made. There are many moments of recognizable parental concerns that can touch those who may wonder about the safety of their own child. A call for compassion that is visceral as the author explains how slights, bullying, ignoring, and ridicule can have a cumulative effect on someone who is suffering from mental illness.

The author has a crystal clear vision of mental health and the continuums of illness. She connects the lack of understanding that accompanies mental illness with how stigma arises and festers in a real way so that an imperative for education is obvious.

One thing that stands out in this account is how difficult it is to understand mental illness if you do not have experience with it. Highly educated persons can hold misconceptions and still miss the nuances of family and individual pain and fail to connect the dots.

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 familys 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 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

In Saving Ourselves from Suicide , Linda Pacha tells the story of her son, Nick, honestly recounting significant experiences and events in his life and outlining his unique challenges and strengths in an effort to better understand why he died by suicide. Linda gives details about the ways she and her family grieved differently and outlines the methods that they used to cope with Nicks traumatic death, including increasing their understanding of mental health challenges, the role of their faith and spiritual beliefs, and the power of connecting with others who have had similar experiences. The common thread throughout the book is Lindas 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),
a nondenominational program and division of Catholic Charities

This book is important on so many levels. It describes the emotional journey of living through the events leading up to suicide and walks through the painful steps of the initial shock and long grieving process. It is a valuable resource to make it through grief and loss. This is a visceral but important read.

Steve Arkin, MD

Attending Neurologist, Miami Valley Hospital

Assistant Professor, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

Cofounder, SpeakUp

Various kinds and levels of adversity are an inevitable part of this life, but such adversity does not have to result in despair. However, without emotional connection with others and a spiritual grounding, we are left to feel isolated, alone, and ultimately without hope. We as a society have become so relationally disconnected from one another that it has led to despair, resulting in rising rates of depression and suicide. Open and honest conversation about mental health and suicide is needed now more than ever in our society. Through the eyes of a loving mother, this book does just that in a candid, caring, and hope-filled way, providing a needed narrative of one familys journey with the challenge of mental health issues. Saving Ourselves from Suicide is a significant contribution to the critical dialogue that we all need to be engaged in regarding how to reduce the stigma of mental health in our society. It is a call to action to turn the tide of despair that is now so prevalent in our culture today.

Rev. Dr. Scott Mitchell, MTh, PsyD

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

President and CEO, SamaraCare

Awareness, education, and connection are keys to tackling the overwhelming issue of suicide in our society. The authors voice in Saving Ourselves from Suicide brings awareness to a new level through her brave and honest account of the death of her beautiful son by suicide and the impact this had on her family and the community.

Fran Zucco, BSN, RN-BC

Clinical Leader

Linden Oaks Behavioral Health

Linda Pachas Saving Ourselves from Suicide draws you into all the emotions and fears that parents experience as they attempt to help their beloved child negotiate the changes, chances, and most certainly the unkind aspects of life. A high-functioning mental/personality challenge, sexual orientation questions, depression, resulting isolation, and bullying and ridicule by peers, classmates, and total strangers set a course that no parent would seek for their childs kind, tender, and formative soul. Lindas story of Nick and his journey draws you empathically into his and her experience. You find yourself at the emotional bottom when Nick makes the ultimate decision that is irreversible. Instead of being stuck there as an end point, Linda continues to write how she finds that the bottom is firm with the ability to rebound in measured steps. Her faith, a hope to heal, love from family and close friends, and their support actually fueled a wounded healers heart. As part of her pathway to healing, she has chosen to passionately share insights, information, and resources to help others decide to stay or to assist the healing of those who have experienced the tragic loss of a loved one to suicide. You cannot heal alone, and her sharing may be the best informed, friendly advice you could receive. It comes from a deep, painful experience and with the authenticity of a mothers broken heart.

The Rev. Dr. Steven R. Rottgers

Canon to the Ordinary, Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri

Author of I Am Yours

Saving Ourselves from Suicide is a courageously written memoir from a mother navigating the loss of her son. Not only is this book a must-read for anyone suffering a loss to suicide, it is also a guide offering support for those living with a loved one who suffers from mental illness. Having survived the loss of my own twin brother to suicide, I can say that the honesty with which Linda shares her journey, describing the events before and after the loss of her son, is both compelling and relatable. Rather than hiding behind the stigma of suicide and weighing the reader down with unnecessary stats and references, Lindas heartfelt storytelling opens the door for us survivors to move through our pain and start healing. Saving Ourselves from Suicide reminds us survivors that we are not alone in our grief and together, we can move forward and start living again.

Monica Pedersen

Former HGTV Host, Author, Interior Designer

Saving Ourselves from SuicideBefore and After: How to Ask for Help, Recognize Warning Signs, and Navigate Grief

Copyright 2019 by Linda Pacha

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For further information contact AutumnBloom Press, Naperville, Illinois.