217. Navigating Suicide Loss: How One Mom Turned Losing Her Son into Purpose with Erin Blechman

Drop me a message or voice note!When grief becomes the very thing that leads you to help others heal, that's when loss truly starts to become a gain.In this episode, I'm sitting down with Erin Blechman—mom, certified grief educator, and suicide loss survivor—for a conversation that is raw, real, and so deeply needed. Erin shares the story of her son Max, a wildly creative, deeply sensitive, and brilliantly funny young man who lived with medication-resistant depression and epilepsy, and who she lost to suicide in June 2020, right in the thick of COVID.Here's what we dig into:✨ The early grief fog: numbness, depression, yearning, and an anger that surprised even her ✨ How journaling became a lifeline and eventually evolved into a book✨ The coping tools that helped her survive: creating a memorial garden and finding her people in a suicide loss support group✨ Her path to becoming a certified grief educator who now leads online grief groups and speaks publicly about suicide loss✨ The cultural problem of grief illiteracy✨ Parental guilt, the brutal "what ifs," and how Erin learned to reframe them into "even ifs"✨ Why healing in community isn't just helpful, it's transformativeIf you've ever lost someone to suicide, loved someone who struggled, or just needed a reminder that your grief doesn't have to look a certain way to be valid, this one's for you.Connect with Erinhttps://www.instagram.com/erin.blechman/https://erinblechman.com/https://www.facebook.com/erin.blechmanauthorClick here to get your copy of Love Like Thunder, Grief Like Rain: https://earthgrief.love/Support the showSupport the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/lifewithgriefpodcast📖 Life Beyond Grief Substack: https://taraaccardo.substack.com/Work with me:Micro-Moments for Transformation: https://lossesbecomegains.com/transformation14-Day Relief in Your Grief Challenge: https://lossesbecomegains.com/relief-in-griefWork with me one-on-one: https://lossesbecomegains.com/work-with-taraConnect with me further:Leave a voice note: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2429466/fan_mail/newInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lossesbecomegains/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewithgriefpodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losses.become.gainsWebsite: https://lossesbecomegains.com/Shop the LBG Daily Journal: https://lossesbecomeg...