Chris Bowden: How men grieve the suicide of a mate - and what we misunderstand

Chris Bowden lost 5 friends to suicide when he was a young man. He coped badly - drinking, drugs, anger, violence, getting into fights. He was spiralling.A university lecturer noticed something wasn't right and pointed Chris toward help. That counsellor changed his life.Now Chris is a researcher passionate about understanding how young men grieve suicide loss. His PhD research revealed something crucial: men don't grieve wrong - they grieve differently. And we're not meeting them where they're at.His work has led him to designing a new degree in trauma transformative support at Wellington's Victoria University. He takes walk-alongs with young men, goes to gaming nights, sits shoulder to shoulder with them.And he's trying to be the lecturer who reached out - paying it forward.We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text or a voicemail by clicking here. If you need support, here are helpful links, phone numbers and resources: https://ember.org.nz/resources/in-a-crisis/