Understanding Survivor Guilt

Understanding Grief / Understanding Grief : Litsa Williams



For further articles on these topics:


Guilt.  We have talked about it from a lot of different angles around here.  We have talked about the shoulda, woulda, couldas.  We have talked about regret, about guilt after an overdose death, and about how to find self-forgiveness when we are grieving.

Just when you thought there was no way we could keep talking about it, last week we got an email asking about another aspect of guilt: survivor guilt.  You ask and we answer, so today we are bringing you a post breaking down the ins and outs of survivor guilt.  We promise this will be the last post on guilt (okay, maybe not the last post on guilt forever, but at least for at least a month or two).   Oh, and if you clicked on this post because you were confused and thought we were talking about LeBron James’ show Survivor’s Remorse, sorry to disappoint.   But don’t worry, Reddit has your back.

Okay, so, survivor guilt.  This is a complicated topic, so I am going to give you a quick outline of where we are going with this post.  First, what the heck is survivor guilt?  Next, what are some circumstances when survivors’ guilt is common and what does it look like?  Finally, what do you DO about survivors’ guilt?


What is Survivors’ Guilt?

On a basic level, survivor guilt is exactly what it sounds like: a sense of deep guilt that comes when one survives something.  If you have heard of survivor guilt before what likely comes to mind is survivors of wars, natural disasters or other traumas.  Survivor guilt was actually first documented and discussed after the Holocaust and what has become clear in the decades that have followed is that survivors' guilt is far more common than was initially understood.  Survivor guilt was previously a diagnosis in the DSM, but was removed and now is a symptom of PTSD.  That said, one can experience survivor guilt independent of a PTSD diagnosis.

What makes survivor guilt especially complex is that the experience varies dramatically for each individual.  Whether a person experiences survivor guilt, its duration and its intensity all vary from person to person.   But the underlying feelings are similar: feeling guilty that you survived when someone else died and that you do not deserve to live when another person did not.  In some cases, this includes feeling you could have done more to save another person, in other cases it is feeling guilty that another person died saving you (a circumstance recently covered in the media after the Colorado movie theater shooting, where three men died protecting their girlfriends).


So when might one experience survivor guilt?

Some of the familiar circumstances one experience survivor guilt are:

After surviving war
Surviving an accident
Surviving natural disaster
Surviving an act of violence

Some less-discussed circumstances that can trigger survivor guilt are:

After surviving an illness that is fatal for others
After a fellow drug-user dies of an overdose
When a parent dies from complications of childbirth
After receiving an organ transplant
After causing an accident in which others died
Guilt for not being present at the time of an accident to potentially save the person who died.
When a child dies before a parent
Death of a sibling, especially in the case of an illness

As with so many types of guilt that arise in grief, some survivor guilt is rational and some isn't.  There are circumstances in which our action (or lack of action) did impact the death of another.  In these cases, there is a rational source of the guilt. In other cases, the guilt isn’t tied to something a person did or didn’t do. Instead, the person feels guilty about what they perceive they could or should have done. This kind of guilt often defies all logic.

Some theorists have suggested that this may be because people would prefer to blame themselves for things outside their control than to accept that they are helpless.  Also worth noting, when people believe your survivor guilt isn't rational, they may try to minimize it by telling you not to feel guilty which can be kind of frustrating.

One of the significant questions that can plague someone experiencing survivor guilt is ‘why?’.  This can take the form of asking why this happened but also, ‘why me’?  So many experiencing survivor guilt struggle to understand why they survived and others did not.  It is common to feel that one was not worthy of survival.  Additionally, as someone feels relief and appreciation for their survival, they often simultaneously feel guilt and shame for having those feelings when others did not survive.

One important thing to remember is, rational or irrational, survivor guilt is normal.  In and of itself it isn’t a sign of unhealthy grief, despite the fact that some people will make you feel like it isn’t okay to feel guilty.  That said, sometimes survivor guilt doesn’t begin to resolve naturally over time.  Sometimes it becomes overwhelming or obsessive, the guilt thoughts become so intrusive that you can’t function.  Then, of course, it is important to get help.  So, the question is: what can you do?

  • Accept what you are feeling. Guilt is a stigmatized emotion, as people can make us feel that it is wrong to feel guilty.  Keep in mind that guilt is not, on its own, a problem. It is a natural feeling that needs to be acknowledged, accepted and processed.
  • Know you’re not alone. Survivor guilt is much more common than people realize.  Finding a support group or other space to connect with others experiencing similar feelings can be very helpful in sharing feelings and feeling less isolated.
  • Remember that your relief and appreciation for your survival can co-exist with your grief for those who died. Celebrating your own survival does not in any way diminish your grief for those who did not survive.
  • Grieve those who died. In some cases, those who died are not people you knew personally or knew well.  This does not mean you cannot take space to mourn those who died in a way that is personal and meaningful for you.
  • Do something with your guilt.  Whether rational or irrational, you can use your guilt to help others.  What you do may come out of things you have learned. Whether it is educating others so they can avoid the mistakes you feel guilty about, raising awareness about causes of death (anything from heart disease to substance abuse to suicide), or simply encouraging others to talk with their family about end of life wishes, you can use many guilt experiences to help others.
  • Don't get stuck on the 'whys'.  Like a small child can't stop asking 'why', when events like this happen we often fixate the 'why'.  If there is a 'why', we can't know what it is no matter how long we obsess about the question.  Difficult as it is, try to let go of asking the 'why' question and focus on the meaning you can create from your survival.  Whether it is big or small, seek the ways you will create something from this second chance.
  • Check out our other posts on guilt. I linked to them up in the first paragraph, but if you skipped right over them this might be a good time to jump back up and read our posts on dealing with grief in general.  Though survivor guilt is unique, it shares features with other types of guilt that might be helpful.
  • Embrace life.  Cheesy, I know.  But in spite of your feelings of guilt, it is important to enjoy the life you have been given.  In the depths of guilt, this can be hard, but it can also be an extremely helpful part of digging out of that hole by feeling you are valuing the gift you were given.
  • Talk to a counselor.  If you are still struggling with survivor guilt it may be time to get some professional help.  Look for a counselor in your area.  A counselor with experience in trauma may be an especially good fit, as they likely have experience with this type of guilt.

Dealt with survivor guilt?  Leave a comment!  And don't forget to subscribe to get all our posts to your email.

We wrote a book!

After writing online articles for What’s Your Grief
for over a decade, we finally wrote a tangible,
real-life book!

After writing online articles for What’s Your Grief for over a decade, we finally wrote a tangible, real-life book!

What’s Your Grief? Lists to Help you Through Any Loss is for people experiencing any type of loss. This book discusses some of the most common grief experiences and breaks down psychological concepts to help you understand your thoughts and emotions. It also shares useful coping tools, and helps the reader reflect on their unique relationship with grief and loss.

You can find What’s Your Grief? Lists to Help you Through Any Loss wherever you buy books:

Let’s be grief friends.

We post a new article to What’s Your Grief about once a week. Subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts.

Related Blog Posts

Related Blog Posts

See More

149 Comments on "Understanding Survivor Guilt"

Click here to leave a Comment
  1. Jasmine  November 15, 2022 at 1:41 am Reply

    Back in 2016 my gf Jessica died of a heroin overdose. We used together often. I woke up next to her and saw her body, I tried to help her but she was already cold. I feel so guilty for not saving her. She saved me from my near fatal overdose once too, I wish i could have returned the favor. I’ve been clean from the heroin for 6 years now, ever since she passed. The survivors guilt still hurts though.

  2. Andrew  September 12, 2022 at 12:34 pm Reply

    My girlfriend was with me when I attempted suicide last year. I was high on drugs. She stayed with me. She lost her two kids three years ago to DHS because she didn’t have a home. Her kids were adopted.

    She died 5 months ago. We broke up 6 months ago because we got into an argument while we were both high and I slapped her. That was the only time I laid a hand on her so she was heartbroken about it and she got with a guy a week or two later as a distraction for her. And the week before she died that guy beat her up and left bruises all over her body. She was very attractive and that was a problem for her in her life. She took a pill an ended up overdosing on fentanyl and she fell. She died from brain swelling in the hospital. She was only 28. At the end she didn’t have a place she could call home or feel safe at. Drugs were all around the people she knew. I pushed her farther away from me after our breakup because I was heartbroken and I’m not good at dealing with my emotions either. I regret everything about it. She trusted me and I just ruined it to satisfy my ego. She said I was the only guy that was good for her.

    1
  3. Georgia  February 1, 2022 at 10:00 am Reply

    My friend committed suicide when we were 16 and I’m turning 18 in a week and I feel so guilty for turning 18 when I know he will never grow up, he will never turn 18
    Is it normal ? I feel so selfish forgetting upset about it

    • Litsa  May 4, 2022 at 6:00 pm Reply

      I’m sorry for my delayed response. Please know it is normal to feel survivor guilt when you pass milestones. It can be helpful to talk with a counselor or therapist and to remember we often guilt even when we had and have no control over a situation. Thinking of what is in your control – how you can stay connected with his memory and live your own life in a way that feels consistent with your values – can help.

    • Maggi  April 19, 2023 at 12:28 am Reply

      My best friend committed suicide 19 years ago . Today is his birthday . I struggled for most of my life from that point on and felt so guilty . He talked about suicide from time to time and we had a “pact”. (If he goes , I go shortly after). I couldn’t go through with it as I felt guilty leaving my dad behind. I wonder here and there how life would be like if he was still here , what would he be doing in life , etc . I know it’s not easy to not feel guilty . Your friend is still with you even though it’s not in the physical form . Talk to him . Honor your time you did have with him . Sometimes the worlds too much and we don’t know how to deal with it . Use your experience to comfort others . He can live on through you . Sending you so much love .

  4. Rick Honeycutt  October 28, 2021 at 12:06 am Reply

    I lived with a woman for 36 years she had been wanting to get married i kept putting it off, and being verbally abusive she went to Florida to help take care and her mom was on her about not being married so she helped her find a man she even got married for a couple of days and got it annulled she still wanted me so in 2020 we got married 6 months later we found out she had a brain tumor and was gone, i know all the stress i kept her in caused this even though doctors says stress can not case it now all i can do is walk around in circles for 12 to 20 hours a day and am feeling like i am going crazy i do not know what to do there is too much to tell what can i do, i live by myself can hardly feed myself have lost forty pounds my clothes are all to big i could go on but would be here all night.

    • Litsa  November 1, 2021 at 9:37 pm Reply

      Rick – I am so sorry for what you are going through. First, I would strongly suggest you get connected with a therapist if you do not have one already. I think this will be a huge support in processing some of the complex emotions that you’re feeling. One thing that is very important to realize about self-blame is that often the reason for it because we would rather blame ourselves that accept that the world can be an unpredictable and chaotic place. When something like this happens, that shatters your world, the normal reaction is to seek control and a common way people do that is to try to make sense of it by finding a reason – a “cause and effect”. We will often desperately seek a cause, even when all the evidence shows that there was no cause (or that the cause we’ve found is not a cause). As terrible as self-blame feels, on some level it can feel better than accepting that sometimes there is simply no preventable cause. When we accept that, it means we have to accept that it could happen again without us ever knowing or suspecting. As hard as it can be, reaching out for support is the most important first thing that you can do. I would encourage you to reach out to a friend or family member for some day-to-day support and seek a therapist by either calling your insurance company, asking friends for referrals, or checking this directory.

  5. Grace  July 8, 2021 at 6:27 pm Reply

    My stepfather died in April last year. He had throat cancer but we weren’t aware it was fatal or critical. We had prepared ourselves for drastic treatment options, but after immunotherapy aggravated the tumour he deteriorated very quickly and died unexpectedly in the middle of the night. I was the one who performed CPR and I’m still back and forth thinking it was my fault that it didn’t work and I should have saved him, or that I should have seen the signs of how bad it was before.

    This was right at the beginning of the pandemic and being away from my friends has made it so much harder. I feel like I can’t be too honest with my family because it’s their pain too and I don’t want to burden them even more. I don’t even feel capable of meeting someone, I feel too broken for anyone to love me sincerely especially if I was ever honest about how I felt about all this.

    I have flashbacks and feel like I avoid grieving properly most of the time because I can’t think about him in any capacity without my mind going on a tangent and thinking about the night he died. I can’t fathom getting married or having kids anymore because I don’t want to walk down the aisle with my biological dad but not my stepdad. I’d always imagined one on each arm. I can’t even watch things like Say Yes To The Dress without it getting me down. And I won’t be able to shake the feeling my kids’ grandad isn’t there. My stepdad had always been so excited thinking about being a grandad.

    I’m an only child so I’m not gonna leave my mum childless as well as widowed, she’s been through more than enough, but sometimes all I want is to fall asleep in someone’s arms and not wake up.

    7
  6. Paul  June 26, 2021 at 4:35 pm Reply

    Wow I have only just been informed that this is real. I understand my own feelings iv been feeling and using to destroy myself over the past 12 year a little more now thank you very much. Knowing some1 is in a house fire but you have done everything you can to try get them out is bad enough but when its your neighbours and life long friends an friends of family daughter in the house. Now thats different on a next level. This is what I felt but always talk myself round an thought it was all in my head. Thanks

    3
  7. George  April 29, 2021 at 3:02 am Reply

    When I was 8 years old I watched my best friend die in front of me when he pushed out of the way of a drunk driver. I saw him fly in the air and land on his head. It still hurts to this day.

    3
  8. Joe  March 14, 2021 at 4:55 pm Reply

    I heard this word “survivor guilt” for the first time. I would like to know more on how addicts have similar underlying issues.

  9. ‪Hagar ‬‏  March 8, 2021 at 7:12 am Reply

    Just wanted to say this article helped me a lot because of its clarity. Thank you!

    4
  10. Larry P  February 26, 2020 at 3:04 pm Reply

    i am a widower –twice. First wife (childhood sweetheart) died from cancer 17 years ago. I remarried (was not looking for anyone it just happened–a lady from church) a widow four years later and she died three years ago (cancer /& Alzheimers) To the point–Once again I have met someone at church. She was widowed a year and a half ago. WE connect really nice. this is early on–Hey I’m 75 and she is 69 but amazingly–you can feel 17 if things click) Anyway–on grief: She was married to an abuser for 14 years. She left for fear of her life and that was about 40 years ago, She had four kids and this guy at work liked her and they wound up together for 32 years. However she told me he was narcissist. I know what that is and it means he was all about himself and she spent her married like walking on egg-shells in a futile attempt to keep him happy. She was the one who worked full time and kept the bills paid etc. He got lung cancer and died. I believe she feels gulty because he is still so in her head about things he made her promise to do after he died. I believe she has a case of PTSD from her life. And damn–she is the sweetest thing but a prisoner of her past. IMHO she is afraid of a ghost and is trying not to offend him. Is that possible? I think it is. We go out and have gone on picnics and to the movies but I have NEVER held her hand and the most I have gotten was a cursory hug . But that is OK. I am being patient She is worth it—but I have a feeling it may never happen as long as she is “haunted.” Any advice for an old guy like me —-As for Me I’m just damn lonely and would love to have someone again. Snuggling up to someone you love and who loves you back at 2am when the world is asleep and you are in bed together is a beautiful thing. it is worth the risk of the potential emptiness you may feel. But— I don’t know about this situation. Its not like we are 20 yrs old. I would appreciate any thoughts . thanks

    7
  11. Susan  December 4, 2019 at 10:35 am Reply

    The survivor guilt I have is from my spouse dying when our kids were 11,9,7,5,3. A couple of them told me through the years how they wished it was me not him that died. How I was a horrible parent. Even as adults, they beat me down over hardships they endured in their life, being my fault and how they missed their dad..how good he was, all the while knowing his drinking, drug abuse and frequenting prostitutes is what killed him. They blame me for his behavior. His death. Their rotten childhood. Now 29 years later, want nothing to do with me.

    5
  12. Esmeralda Castellanos  October 23, 2019 at 11:34 pm Reply

    I recently lost my dad. He was driving and had a heart attack. I don’t know if what I’m feeling is survivors guilt but sometimes I feel so guilty that I get to do things and my dad doesn’t anymore. It makes me feel really sad and not want to go out anymore. It makes me want to be alone and just sleep. I miss my dad so much. I wish I would have called him that morning and told him I loved him. I feel so guilty that we are receiving survivors income but I know we can’t deny it my dads income was how we paid a lot of bills. I don’t want to feel this way anymore. I don’t know if any of my other siblings feel like this but I don’t want to tell them and possibly have them start feeling the same way. I try to explain it to my fiancé but I don’t think he understands me.

    5
    • Matthew Ressler  January 25, 2021 at 3:44 pm Reply

      t hHang in there Esmerelda. Grief made me feel so lonely and despaired for 2 years following the death of my husband and best friend of 15 years. It still hurts, but the guilt is fading, and I can sometimes have memories that aren’t accompanied by a deep, unbearable pain. My heart goes out to you, and your broken heart. You obviously loved your father very much, try to remember that instead of feeling guilt. I know these words are of little to no comfort, there was a time when nothin g anyone said felt real, or made me feel better in any way. I’m afraid time may be the only anecdote to what your experiencing. Just do your best to carry on. Try to wake up in the morning and hold onto something positive, like a personal goal or dream. You don’t dishonest your Dad by living as best you can, I know it’s hard to imagine, but the greatest gift you could give your Dad right now is to live a happy and fulfilled life. I also leaned heavily upon my faith and prayer whenever I felt like I was drowning in guilt and unbearable grief. I would pray for strength to cope with the guilt and pain. And it’s coming up on 3 years, and I’m still here, just now getting around to selling our home(he was also the breadwinner, so I know how that feels too). It will come and go, but you can and will get through this, I promise you. I will pray for you, I’m very sorry for your loss.

      Sincerely,
      Matt

      3
  13. Bo  October 8, 2019 at 10:41 pm Reply

    My mother passed away during childbirth and my grandmother passed away due to lung cancer when I was in middle school. I can’t help but feel responsible for both of their death and the pain it caused on the people around me. I never thought about mother and her death until recently. Talking about her to anyone in the family was a subject of taboo, an unspoken promise. My grandmother filled her role for the most of her life. My dad got remarried when I was three, but my stepmother was abusive and would make me hide the fact that she was beating me up every time my dad was not home. Everyone in the family knew except for him. No one talked about it. I still can’t tell my father about it, I don’t want him to feel even more guilty about the situation. My grandmother began working at my father’s restaurant to take care of me and protect me from my stepmother’s abuse. She worked long hours in the kitchen filled with smoke from the burnt meat. My aunt and uncle in America decided to adopt me to give me a better chance to lead a happy. Two years after I moved here, my grandmother died of cancer. The last time I called her, I hesitated to tell her that I loved her, because saying that would make it sound like a last goodbye. I eventually muttered up the courage to say, but she already handed over the phone to my father. I never forgave myself for that moment. I was so young, and I didn’t know how to handle the loss of the most important person in my life. I was already overwhelmed adjusting to whole new culture. I decided to ignore the sadness and grief hoping they would go away in time. They came back when I tried to open up emotionally in adulthood. I feel responsible for my mother and grandmother’s death. If I hadn’t been born, my mom would still be alive, and my grandmother wouldn’t have to work and inhale smoke that killed her. I know I should be grateful for their sacrifices and being alive, but I just wish that it was me who died that day. I never wanted to be born. I feel responsible for all the pain it caused to the people around me for just being here. People tell me it’s not my fault and I know it’s not, but I can’t help feeling such way. I feel even worse because I am not living my life fullest. I don’t think I’ll ever get over this. I miss her so much.

    2
    • B.C.  November 1, 2021 at 12:49 am Reply

      When I was 31, I had a hemorrhagic stroke 6 weeks after giving birth. By the grace of God, the ER doctor decided to do a CT scan when I was complaining of a headache and having extremely high blood pressure, rather than assuming it was stress from having a newborn. I have since met the family and friends of 3 women personally who have lost their daughter/wife/best friend to the same brain injury, and have read about hundreds of women who have lost their lives. I cry every time I hear about anyone having a stroke and wonder why I am not dead or severely disabled. I want to find the purpose of my surviving, but all I ever feel is like God made a mistake in keeping me alive.

      1
  14. Crystal  September 20, 2019 at 9:26 pm Reply

    I will start by thanking each and everyone of you for sharing your stories. I have been having a rather difficult night and decided to start writing. Sometimes I like to search online for other peoples stories for inspiration on how to describe my feelings. After reading some of these posts, I feel like I have no right to complain about the life I have been given as some of the stories I have read seem utterly unbearable.

    I have endured some rather difficult times growing up starting with the passing of my father a week before I turned 12 and so on. But recently I have experienced something that has caused a tornado of emotions. I do go to regular counseling to help sort these emotions and my therapist stated that I have classic symptoms of survivors guilt and PTSD. However, in my case there were no lives lost or other people involved. Back in February I was home by myself completing some tasks. I had just finished snowblowing and went into the house to start laundry. When I set my laundry basket down next to my couch my house exploded. My house literally disintegrated. I was conscious throughout the entire event as my body lifted up in the air and then I crashed down into my concrete crawl space. Things were still landing on top of and around me as I pushed what debris I could off of my face and upper body. Using the truss from the roof that was straddling my thighs, I pulled myself up into a sitting position and began screaming for help while it snowed on me. My step father lived next door to me and he knew I was home. Time seemed to have frozen because I felt that I sat there screaming for help forever, I couldn’t hear anything but the propane whistling. The pain was indescribable as I knew my feet, back and ribs were messed up. Eventually help came and because of the severity of the issue and the amount of debris in the road and what not, with the help of the rescuers and my step dad I had to walk out of the house. Of course being in the crawl space, they made stairs out of cinder blocks so I could crawl up them and walk to the road to the EMTs. I was rushed to a hospital an hour away where I received trauma services, was intubated and then flown to a hospital 6 hours away. I was in the trauma burn center for a week before transferring to another floor. I was hospitalized for 3 weeks and then returned home to my mother where I continue to recover.

    Although I suffered burns, puncture lung, lacerated spleen, a hefty amount of broken bones and multiple trauma, I am a very lucky woman. I still have all of my body parts, my hearing, and surprisingly nothing imploded my body. Currently I am experiencing chronic pain but was told this could take 12-18 months before I started to physically feel normal again. There is no other explanation to my survival or relatively minor injuries for the circumstances besides that I am a walking miracle. I am very grateful for this second chance at life but it does not come without a lot of negative feelings and questions as well. Such as why and how this happened (ruled a propane explosion due to undetermined cause as there was nothing left to the house), why my life was spared, what my purpose is and so on. The nightmares are continuous, although this has been a lifelong issue for me. Nighttime is the worst as my brain becomes a movie screen with the scene of that night playing on repeat. People have been so wonderful and supportive, but you still feel alone and as if people truly can’t relate to you. This has change not just my life but the life of my family as well financially, physically and emotionally. I am not sure I will ever understand this part of my life, but I can only continue to conquer each day one day at a time.

    Sorry for the lengthy post, apparently I just needed to release some things.

    3
  15. Scott Throrne  September 13, 2019 at 1:38 am Reply

    I survived a boating accident on a lake in Alaska. on October 4, 1974. Two of my friend drowned and I watched them as they went under, never to come back up. I was helpless to do anything. The conditions were brutal: Water temperature was 34 degrees, wind blowing 30 mph, creating very large whitecaps. I was wearing only a long sleeve wool shirt and jeans and had to swim about a quarter mile to the shore, where a sheer cliff met the water, then pull myself along the cliff base for about 100 yards, then walk back to the parking area. Nobody was around. I had to walk about three miles out to the main road, and then a couple more until I was picked up and taken to a local state policeman’s home. I was in the Air Force at the time, and two friends drove a couple hours to pick me up and take me back to the base. I was checked by a medical staff upon arrival. They told me then they have no idea how I survived, as given the conditions and the way I was dressed, I should have died of exposure. As it was, I didn’t even have any frostbite nor any other physical problems. The Coast Guard tried a recovery the next day but the conditions and depth of the lake prohibited them from doing much. The bodies of my friends were never found.
    I’ve been living with this for 45 years now. I think about it every single day. I have regular nightmares. Therapy has done little, if any, good. I think everyday about the wives and kids they left behind. At the memorial service for them, my superiors kept me separated from the families; they weren’t sure what the families my say or how they would act towards me and didn’t want the chance of a nasty and traumatizing confrontation. I have never been able to find the families.
    Over the years, this has caused major depression during which I didn’t leave my room for several weeks. I was hospitalized twice. I contemplated suicide at one point. It was a major contributor to my divorce. I’ve managed to get over the very worst of it, but I still feel the guilt of surviving. I ask, like many others do, “Why me?” There is no answer, and it sucks.

    2
    • Kaylee  October 16, 2019 at 1:19 pm Reply

      On April 19th of this year I went to the beach for spring break with my best friend. We had only been there for 30 minutes or so when I suggested that we go swimming. She and I went in with my other friend but after a few minutes I went back to lay on the beach. A woman ran up to me and pointed out how far out they were and I ran in thinking I could save them. I was close enough that I could see their faces and hear their cries for help. A wave pushed me down and when I came back up they were gone and I realized how far out I was and realized I was going to drown. The waves were 9 feet that day and I was caught in a rip current. For some reason I was able to get out. One of my friends was found and brought to the hospital where she was taken off life support a week later. My other friend wasn’t found for 3 days. I don’t know how to live with the guilt. If I had made them come in with me or paid closer attention they would be alive. I don’t understand how I got out when they couldn’t. I feel like there’s no one I can talk to who understands.

      2
      • Matthew Ressler  January 25, 2021 at 4:39 pm

        Kaylee, I am so sorry for the pain and anguish this experience caused you. It was not your fault, one day you will be able to see that, but it may take a while. What a terrible and traumatic experience this must have been for you. I can’t even imagine the horror of what you experienced, seeing their faces was most likely the most traumatizing part for you. It was just a horrible tragedy, you did nothing wrong, there was no way for anyone to predict what would happen. I promise you, one day you will put this guilt behind you and be at peace within. It took me close to 3 years to begin to have peace. That doesn’t mean I was living in misery for that entire duration, but during those first few year, I was plagued with overwhelming grief and sadness and guilt, almost like reliving it, every night at bedtime, I would cry myself to sleep. I couldn’t have a good memory of my loved one without it being quickly consumed by the dread and guilt and horror of finding him dead. It felt as if no one understood, and sometimes it felt as if I was expected to be over it, but that is bullshit, don’t let anyone tell you how long you have to grieve or process what happened. Just hand in there, and take it one day at a time. Try to start each day with something positive you can hold onto. The trauma and grief will subside one day, but I’m afraid the only thing that can heal you is time. Time WILL heal. I PROMISE YOU, you will be feel better in time. I will pray for you. Again, so sorry for your loss and for having had such a traumatic experience.

        Sincerely,
        Matt

        2
    • Jenny  November 16, 2020 at 1:52 pm Reply

      Scott,
      In 1988 my husband was a NFO assigned to the USS Constellation. His group had just left San Diego and was running night training exercises over the Pacific in EA6B aircraft. Weather was no moon and light rain. Something went wrong and the plane crashed on the ocean. 4 men gone, no survivors, no recovered remains.
      My husband (Scott) took the seat of his best friend who had overslept, and missed the exercise. I did not know this for over a year. Everything on the JAG report was heavily redacted. Kevin (the best friend) came and told me in person, after the cruise was over. He had horrible guilt about Scott’s death. I forgave him the moment he told me. Horrible as it was to lose my husband, how much worse was it for Kevin to carry all this guilt?
      Please stop torturing yourself for something you couldn’t help. Sometimes things happen that are beyond your control. No one knows when a plane will go down, or a boat will sink.
      I’m not the family of your friends. But if I were, I would want you to heal.

  16. Scott Throrne  September 13, 2019 at 1:32 am Reply

    I survived a boating accident in Alaska. Two of my friend drowned and I watched them as they went under, never to come back up. I was helpless to do anything. The conditions were brutal: Water tempreture was 34 degrees, wind blowing 30 mph, creating very large whitecaps. I was wearing only a long sleeve wool shirt and jeans and had to swim about a quarter mile to the shore, where a sheer cliff met the water, pull myself along the cliff base for about 100 yards, then walk back to the parking area. Nobody was around. I had to walk about three miles out to the main road, and then a couple more until I was picked up and taken to a local state policeman’s home. I was in the Air Force at the time, and two friends drove a couple hours to pick me up and take me back to the base. I was checked by a medical staff upon arrival. They told me then they have no idea how I survived, as given the conditions and the way I was dressed, I should have died of exposure. As it was, I didn’t even have any frostbite nor any other physical problems. The Coast Guard tried a recovery the next day but the conditions and depth of the lake prohibited them from doing much. The bodies of my friends were never found.
    I’ve been living with this for 45 years now. I think about it every single day. I have regular nightmares. Therapy has done little, if any good. I think everyday about the wives and kids they left behind. At the memorial service for them, my superiors kept me separated from the families; they weren’t sure what the families my say or how they would act towards me. I have never been able to find them.
    Over the years, this has caused major depression and didn’t leave my room for several weeks. I was hospitalized twice. I contemplated suicide at one point. I’ve managed to get over the very worst of it, but I still feel the guilt of surviving. I ask, like many others do, “Why me?” There is no answer, and it sucks.

  17. Damian Maraj  August 21, 2019 at 5:24 pm Reply

    I lost 2 friends to gun violence growing up in the Bronx. I and couldn’t get rid of the guilt I would self sabotage, ruin good jobs and I became really depressed before I began to speak about , I just focus on keeping their memories alive while I try and make the best of this life, talking help me to start thinking positive, I use to be real negative minded.

  18. John  August 17, 2019 at 12:55 am Reply

    After four decades of Combat for the US military and a mercenary group in the Congo. I have lost hundreds of comrades in arms. Ex SF’s / Rangers live with it. Irrationally to most no doubt I feel I deserve it. It is our daily reminder of the horrors of war. I feel l should have died with them. Sometimes I feel as I’m paying my Penance. There were times in the Congo we were under a plaque like children soldiers and slaughtered them by the hundreds. Even though they were trying to kill us, Trust me when I tell you that guilt never will never leave me. After all, combat is for God and Country…. bs PTSD is real for me. I move like others change socks; Isolation, 0 relationships, depression, night terrors, ghosts of lost friends and enemies both. I have always managed to show all those souls including those for my family into my internal refrigerator inside my soul, slam the door and hit lunch. Of course now, I’m 70 and the ghosts are kicking that door open. I can’t break down and cry; never done before. People tell me to go to the VA. I have a deep distrust for their skill or talent. Christ, they’ve killed more people than the plague. Suppose you would be glad to know I have an appointment with a psychiatrist in 2 days. You helped me understand why I’m nuts. My wife of 26-years died 9 months ago horrific death. I wonder, is penance and punishment the same?

  19. Belinda  July 21, 2019 at 9:15 am Reply

    I lost my youngest daughter to suicide many years ago but feels like yesterday. I was separated from
    My husband of 20 years at the time. My child was living in an apartment that I was paying for and she had asked me if she could come home, (She meant Home yo her daddy and me)which I did not know how to answer her Told her I would work something out. I did not do anything for about 5 days and that was a fatal mistake. She took an overdose of antidepressants and does 7 days later. I can’t forgive myself of so many things and have my other daughter has abandoned me and taken my grandson away when he was 5.i had practically raised him and it was just devastating. It

    • Matthew Ressler  January 25, 2021 at 5:08 pm Reply

      Belinda, I am so sorry for this terrible tragedy and loss that has fallen on you. Dealing with a separation after 20 years of marriage must have been horrible, you were emotionally exhausted and had nothing left to give. You needed support yourself. I truly believe that one day you will see the truth in that you are not to blame. I lost my father to suicide, and I found my husband of 15 years on the floor dead in our bedroom from a heart attack, after neglecting to check on him after I hear the loud thud of his fall. As a lifeguard, I knew when I finally went to check on him 10 minutes later, and found him, that that 10 minutes was his only chance of survival, and the guilt of knowing that hit me like a wave of horror in a way that I can’t even describe. I called 911, and administered CPR, all the while knowing with certainty that I was too late. I also heard his ribs crack as I was administering CPR, it only added to the horror and trauma. I’m only sharing this in hopes that you’ll feel like I have some experience with guilt and trauma to speak from. I know it’s not the same, and after my loss, no one else’s story seemed to come anywhere near to what I had experienced. It felt as if everyone else’s guilt was so irrational, whereas I KNEW without a doubt that my guilt was warranted, and completely rational. Three years later, I still struggle with this from time to time, but for the most part, I finally forgive myself, and know that I simple DID NOT know, just as you simply DID NOT KNOW that was going to happen. My husband was older, and well, a husband, not a child. I cannot imagine what you must be going through, losing a daughter, but I do truly believe what happened was not your fault, and as hard as it is for you to believe this now, one day you will know that it is true as well, and you will know peace. I do not know the circumstances leading to your other daughter pulling herself and your granddaughter away, but it must be devastating to you. You have been through A LOT, you need and deserve love and kindness and support right now, and for many years to come. Time will heal. Hang in there, I will pray for you.

      Sincerely,
      Matt

      1
  20. Mary  June 9, 2019 at 1:02 pm Reply

    Only in the past year have I realized there is a name for my survivor’s guilt, that its indeed real and I am not alone in feeling it. That alone gives me some small degree of comfonnecti years ago I lost 2 children in a housefire as a result of a faulty propane connection. That same fire nearly killed my 2 other children, my husband and myself. Then in 2010 i lost my 42 year old son to cancer and in 2013 my husband also died of cancer. I have had nightmares, night sweats, unable to hold a job for more than a few years…gone from job to job…the longest I held a job was 8 years. I am irritable, fatigued for years and cry a lot. I have difficulty going to the cemeteries where they are buried. I have tried purging my blues by talking it out with a select few family members who tell me to just let it go or get over it, but they have no clue how deeply this has really affected me. I want out of this life. I will never consider suicide because I never want to be responsible for anyone elses grief or guilt, but quite honestly I cannot wait to die.

    • Stephen Miller  June 23, 2019 at 8:40 pm Reply

      Thank you very much Mary for sharing your story, I when through many lost in my life since the death of my father when I was 9 yrs old and since his death I always felt responsible for his death. 17 yrs later I lost my mother in the same circumstances and knowing that she was going to die (I knew it 5 years before her death) I couldn’t bear the pain of loosing her, so I acted in ways that I regret so much since her death. 5 years ago I almost lost my youngest son from suicide attempts, due to a relationship I was in, that made me abandon I’m by moving away so I din’t affect I’m with the problem of the relationship. I also like you don’t want to commit suicide so I don’t end up hurting the life of those around me, but I sometimes can’t wait for death to come get me.

      Thank you, your story makes me feel that I’m not alone and that I have the right to feel the way I do feel.

      1
  21. Cheryl  May 19, 2019 at 7:14 am Reply

    July 2016, my pregnancy went wrong. My 5th child, my first princess. Having horrendous pains I went to hospital. I was told I was in threatened pre term labour, they would give steroids for my babies lungs, pain relief. Having been monitored over night and 2 steroid injections I was sent home. This was already a very complicated pregnancy. The following day I collapsed screaming in pain. It was as though I’d been inflated to the point I needed to burst. Swallowing breathing, standing, sitting, laying drinking. Everything hurt. I was rushed to a closer hospital. They knew nothing about me or my pregnancy but knew things was bad. They took me for an emergency c section. When they opened me up I was full of puss. I had infection in the lining of my womb, my infection markers through the roof. Baby was taken to special care baby unit. I had iv antibiotics, morphine. Daily bloods, a CT scan with contrast. I struggled but pushed through the pain the best I could. Eventually things went down hill I was rushed back to theatre 5 days post c section.(Getting stuck in the loft on the way down!) I had appendicitis which had caused the infection. My bowels had perforated. When I woke I had 17 staples holding my abdomen together. Drains and cathater. I had to watch others look after my baby and separated from my other kids. Ione of my children has autism and I should have been preparing him for a huge change, starting mainstream school. When I eventually got out of hospital my children continued to stay with grandparents. The 25 minute journey home wiped me out, I slept the entire day. My needle phobia is now uncontrollable, I can’t go near the section of the hospital I was in, I can’t forgive myself for putting my daughter through what she went through, for not being there for her or protecting her from it, I have been told I had sepsis during this time from the infection. I had a pre term baby, appendicitis, infection in my uterus, bowel perforation, and sepsis. 2 major operations in 5 days, 17 staples and 16 weeks of complex wound healing. I feel guilty as last year my cousin passed away very suddenly from sepsis and I can’t understand why he didn’t have the treatment I had. I know if I had of had a normal delivery like the original hospital wanted the puss in my abdomen wouldn’t have been found. Chances are my husband would have woken up next to a corpse. I feel guilty my cousin is dead. He had more to give In His life than I and why wasn’t it me.

  22. Dee Godby  May 11, 2019 at 11:39 pm Reply

    As a child I survived sexual abuse. I put in the back of my head. Years later as an adult my body started to act up. Doctors could not find out the reason. Finally, I went to a therapist who told me some things. One was I had to face my past. I did and that was not good. I blamed myself for the abuse. I thought of all the times I had tried to kill myself and I was still alive. still dealing with the guilt of living while others like me have died or been committed.

  23. Lauren  April 18, 2019 at 12:47 pm Reply

    My mother told me she thought I was having survivors guilt 3 years ago and she told me again today. I never thought I had it till today when I looked it up. Easter is a very bad time for me and my children. I lost my husband in 2016 to drug overdose the friday before Easter. Which I was texting him while he was doing it and didnt even know. Ive blamed myself for that this whole time. I thought I got him the help he need to stay away from drugs. I thought maybe if I was home he wouldnt of done it. Well its 2019 and my ex boyfriend which we remained best friends after we broke up. Was going through some issues with his current girlfriend. He talked about suicide alot to me but only when he would drink. I saved him 3 weeks ago while he was drunk driving calling me on my cell phone saying he want to put his car in the tree. I talked him out of it and i went to pick him up. He stopped drinking after that and was doing good till sunday night. He called me while he was at the bar he sounded like he was in good spirits he continued to text me through the night. 11 pm came around he tried calling and texting me saying he need to vent. I think him and his girlfriend got into another argument. I woke up with an awful feeling in my stomach thinking was dead. And sure enough he passed away from a head on collision with a tree. It happen monday before easter. I blame myself for this also. what if I answered that phone call he would still be here. I have failed my husband and my ex-boyfriend/best friend.

    • Eleanor Haley  April 18, 2019 at 4:16 pm Reply

      Lauren, it is so easy for us to go down a ‘coulda woulda shoulda’ rabbit hole, because we often want to blame ourselves. It is easier than the reality that we cannot control or save others and that we have no way of knowing what the outcome would have been. Coping with guilt and finding self-compassion and self-forgiveness is a process. Have you ever talked with a counselor? I think it could be really helpful in processing so many of the feelings you are having. We also have a post I would really encourage you to look at on the difference between guilt and regret. Though initially it can feel like they are the same, there are important difference. It sounds to me like you were doing the best you could for both of them, with their well-being in mind – that is not failure. You can check out that post here – https://whatsyourgrief.com/guilt-vs-regret-in-grief/

  24. Juno  April 13, 2019 at 4:05 pm Reply

    I stumbled to this article in search of comforting words in what I’m currently feeling. I had a nasty break up recently we are supposed to get married but his family is not agreeing if intercultural marriage and though he made me believe he got the matter under his control eventually he broke up with me in an on and off decision. I have sacrificed a lot of things for him, giving up my job, moving to a different country, going against my family. It was very painful and difficult but then after several months i was able to start again. I don’t even know how he’s doing, knowing him he tend to blame everything to himself and live feeling sorry for himself and his situation (not having a full control of his own life) I sent him a mail saying I’ve forgiven him and I’m fine, he can move on with his life and it’s not his only fault why we ended up like this. He didn’t reply. But I feel guilty of surviving every single day while not having a clue of how he’s doing 🙁

  25. Cherise Fields  March 26, 2019 at 10:20 pm Reply

    My fiancé passed away 3 months and 12 days ago(12.14.18) that was the day my whole world ended! I had just got off of work and he had been asking me to go out with him for awhile and I chose not to. He had left out and had came back within a couple of hours. He had wanted to go on the boat to gamble. He smelled like alcohol and bad cigarettes and seemed to be out of it. He later at 3 am got up and never came back. Someone found him dead sitting halfway in his car at a store around the corner from our house. I’m so traumatized and I cry everyday. If only I had gone out and hung out with him and fought to keep him from leaving out by himself at 3, I mean straight arguing with him to keep him in my sight maybe he wouldn’t died unexpectedly!!! Due to jealous family I never saw him after that night nor did I attend his funeral. 11 years and he’s gone. It’s so unfair and I ask God why did you take him from me?! My life will never be the same if only I would have went out and stayed by his side (survivors guilt)loneliness and jealousy is how I’m dealing with my soulmate being gone! This is so unbelievable, unreal and I look to move forward and questions how to live now without him , but it bothers me because if only I would have stayed by his side!

    1
  26. paul clark  March 13, 2019 at 5:03 pm Reply

    25 years ago my brother ( my hero since we were kids ) died from a Heroin overdose in his bathroom in Vancouver BC . Of course this happened while he was hitting up. Killer potent doses were being bought by addicts and they were playing an even more deadly game. I was in Ontario and we had prior phone conversations about that very thing and I was begging him to stop before his number came up but he blew off my suggestions and fears. I next made up a desperate plan to go out there, buy some shit ( enough to get him back here in Ontario ) and drag him here to save his life. Our Father was all for it. Trying something even if it was high risk for failure. Next I made the mistake of contacting an addiction center in my town for advice. Their advice was it would never work and the addict has to help themselves get clean. I delayed and then the phone call that he was dead came. I wish I would have just went and tried and not made that phone call. Its been so bad sometimes that I believe I made that call so they would talk me out of helping my brother. 1.5 years later my other brother hung himself. This was all to much for our father. I believe he purposely accelerated his own demise a year later by mixing medications with alcohol/poor living choices. If only I would have acted and not delayed,not delayed, FN` not delayed. I have to live with it. The possibility it could have turned out better. For all of us.

    • Matthew Ressler  April 1, 2019 at 5:36 am Reply

      I’m so sorry Paul. I know you must feel like you really missed your chance to save him because you were selfish or whatever is going through your mind, listen; your brother made poor choices, and it ended horribly. And then all the other losses you’ve experienced, it’s got you in bad place mentally. You did not let anyone down. Your brother let you down. And everyone that loved him down. And it’s so awful, I can feel your pain almost like it is my own, I am crying right now for what happened to your brother, but you a the victim in all this. You have to remember that. You wanted your brother to get better, but he selfishly chose not to. Addiction is horrible that way. So hate the addiction, it is the only thing you should blame. And trust me, I have seen many many attempt to force, persuade, beg, addicts, when they’re not ready, they see any kind of confrontation, even the slightest mention of their use, as an attack, and they will only want to get away from you. One of friends died overdosing on heroin. Right after I left him alone in a small town where he didn’t have anyone else who wasn’t a just after drugs. He was mad when I said I was moving back to the west coast. He died not too long after I left. Sure, I feel guilty sometimes, extremely guilty. But we tend to think that those with these addictions are innocent in all of it somehow because we love them. But he had been lying and manipulating for so long, he was always the victim. I don’t know, I couldn’t save him. I would have just ended up like him. People who use drugs need to know how much they’re destroying the people who love them. I would take my family’s peace of mind over getting loaded anyway, no matter how depressed I might feel sober. Anyways, that’s my peace. Unfortunately, I’m like you, I have guilt for for husband dying. 15 years together. I was supposed to take care of him. I heard a bang, pretty loud actually. I didn’t bother to go see. I was playing video games, i got a weird feeling when I didn’t hear him come back from the bathroom on the other end of the house. I went and i guild him, and years of lifeguard training taught me that it was too late, I screamed, because I knew I’d missed the window, I never knew horror until that moment, I shook him desperately, screaming his name in a voice I’d never even heard before, so loud and shrill. I can’t escape that night. That’s what I have to live with. It takes time. I won’t let it destroy me. When I’m at my lowest I picture him angry with me for not coming to help him. And I look at everything he left me and cringe, wondering how I could even live with myself, or dare even smile. The reality is, he went into cardiac arrest, it was his time, and even if I’d gotten there, I didn’t have an AED machine, which is crucial. I missed a slim chance of saving him. But it still hurts. Plus just missing him, hurts. We just have to move forward somehow. I find solace in prayer. I feel so wasted away, so I envision him as my strength, and trudge on. My life feels so dismal sometimes, the guilt returns, you just got to fight it and keep going.

  27. Nicoletta Costantini  March 9, 2019 at 8:22 pm Reply

    When i was 8 years old my best friend died of an asthama attack that led to her lungs collapsing. I was young at the time, but i hadn’t really grasped what death was. The night she died she ate dinner with me and my family, and to this day i can remember the exact dinner scene. Her family wasn’t well off, she was one of triplets and had two older siblings, her mom was a prescription drug addict, and her father was relatively out of the picture. My family would always try and help them out, take the kids places and etc because we had the money that they didn’t. When i tell you she was my best friend, my soul mate, and my other half i am not exaggerating. I loved her with all of my heart, she was part of my family. That night when i said goodbye to her after dinner i said the same thing i did everytime we parted ways, “bye, see you at school tomorrow!”. But the next day she didn’t go to school, and that was when my other friend informed me she had died. After hearing that i went to the counselors office, and listened as the counselor danced around the word ‘death’. That day stands as one of the worst days of my life, and it was so traumatic to me that i remember every second of it. It’s been almost 9 years since she died and i have these episodes where i think or hear something and i just start sobbing. It feels almost like a panic attack, but there is nothing that will level me. I know my story compared to some of the ones down here isn’t that grand. No one took a bullet for me, or saved my life in any way. But i have just always felt like when she left that night i could’ve done something. could’ve kept her at my house, made her stay a bit longer. I can rationalize with myself and say, “it wasn’t your fault”, “there was nothing you could do”, but it never helps. i just wish that i could stop feeling guilty over something that was obviously out of my hands.

  28. Aliya C Peddie  January 2, 2019 at 7:09 pm Reply

    How can I survive this? After an almost 9 year abusive marriage to a man I loved but who became an alcholic our divorce became final. Just over a year later, while his mother was vacationing with your 2 daughters at Universal Studios, he kept braking the protection order by calling and verbaling attacking me. I told him to ‘Leave me alone!’ He was going out on the river with friends that day to have fun and drink. My last words to him basically were, ‘ Leave me alone. Go have fun drinking on the river and drown.’ And he DID!!! I have to survive this. But how?

    • Matthew Ressler  April 1, 2019 at 5:45 am Reply

      We all say things like that Sweetheart. You didn’t kill him, his choice to be wreckless and drunk killed him. You were in a very toxic relationship with this man because he was very toxic, anyone in your shoes would have yelled and told him to go away, and far worse than saying you hope he drowns. You were being attacked, and harassed, it’s only normal to lash out. It was just a bad coincidence that he died, but no one wants you to hold this irrational guilt except you. Let it go, you didn’t do anything to him. You were the victim in all this not him.

  29. J. Sanchez  October 19, 2018 at 7:36 pm Reply

    I don’t know if my circumstance fits the usual description of survival guilt. My husband had health issues toward the end of his life that led to his physical disability and limited mobilty. I was his caregiver and, as a nurse, was able to intervene on several occasions in potentially fatal situations and take care of them. Well, one day we leaving home to go to an appointment and he collapsed in front of me. He had blown a pulmonary embolism and, although a neighbor and I had done cpr, and he made it to the ER, he was gone, I lost him. I wasn’t able to save him this time. It didn’t help that the night before he was telling me he was having trouble and I couldn’t convince him to go to the hospital. We actually argued about it. To this day it tears me apart. I question whether I did enough the night before; whether there was more I could have done that day. I told a friend recently that if I could have switched places that I would have given my life for him.

    1
    • Matthew Ressler  April 1, 2019 at 5:49 am Reply

      Of course you feel that way, because you feel guilt. Like you failed him as a caregiver. Honey, you did your best. You were right there by his side through it all. You have great loss, don’t let the could of should of thoughts poison your mind. You stuck by him and loved him, that’s all anyone can ask for.

  30. KP  October 19, 2018 at 6:34 pm Reply

    I am dealing with survivors guilt, I was sex trafficked growing up by my parents. One evening another lady who tried to escape was caught and killed right in front of me… I was 13… I won’t go into the details of the event, it was pretty violent… It was 20 years ago and I’m finally talking more in depth about what happened.

    1
  31. sarah merriman  September 28, 2018 at 10:39 pm Reply

    in 1999 i was hit by a train, my car was rolled around 16 times an i survived with several scrapes, bruises, a large piece of glass almost puncturing my lung and a broken vertebrae, no i wasn’t trying to beat the train or wasn’t looking, the engineer was drunk an didn’t blow his siren, was going 77 mph when he hit me as well as there were no lights or bars and the grass was very high, it was on a back gravel road. i saw an heard nothing,its been 20 yrs yet when i hear of other people getting hit by trains an dieing i feel guilty

  32. Catherine J  September 18, 2018 at 8:20 pm Reply

    My husband and I were in a serious car accident a couple of weeks ago while on vacation. I was driving our rental car and my husband was the passenger on a two lane road, getting ready to turn left onto a side road. I remember putting my left blinker on and then a deafening crashing sound. I also have some recollection of the feeling that our car was moving on it’s own. It turns out that a young motorcyclist was three cars behind us and,despite a double yellow line, he decided to pass all three cars. He passed two, but by the time he made it to our car, I had just started the left hand turn and he crashed violently into our car, t-boning us. The front part of his motorcycle was lodged right behind my passenger door, there was a dent just over my driver side window where his head (he wasn’t wearing a helmet) hit the car and he landed in a grassy field just in front of our car, which was pushed about 40feet across the intersection and into the same grassy field. The young man lived just a few minutes, then died at the scene. It was horrible seeing him and watching the EMTs work to keep him alive. They called for a life flight, but he died before the helicopter could arrive. The accident was caught on a surveillance camera that was on the side of a convenience store right across from the accident. The state troopers assured me that I did nothing wrong and that there was nothing I could have done to prevent it from happening. My husband and I were physically OK, but I have found myself in a completely new world wondering why it happened, how it could have happened even though I did everything right. I have always been in control of my emotions, but with this, I seem lost and just don’t know even how to really define what I’m feeling and what to do with it. One minute I’m fine, able to throw myself into my job and the next, I’m a blubbering mess. I feel relief at being alive, guilty that I’m alive, sad for the motorcyclist, furious at the motorcyclist, curious to know about who he was and how his family is, grateful that my family and friends aren’t dealing with my death or serious injury, questioning why things do and don’t happen – I’m a jumble of thoughts and emotions. I’m irritable, startled by anything that sounds like a motorcycle and just seem to be changed, but not sure what to do. All of the insurance phone calls just bring everything right back to the surface. I’ve found a counselor and have had one very emotional visit with her. Is this survivor’s guilt? Whatever it is, I need to know how to make sense of it and how to deal with it,

  33. Rhianna Hawk  August 30, 2018 at 12:29 pm Reply

    My grandmother is an immigrant who had to flee her country during war, and I believe that she may still suffer strongly from survivor’s guilt. She lost her parents and sister when she left, and as you said, she suffers from it despite having had no hand in losing her family. I really like the tips on how to deal with the guilt that you provide, particularly knowing you’re not alone because my family and I do really want her to know that she is loved and supported. However, as you said, finding others who can relate would probably be more beneficial in helping her feel less alone in her struggle, so I may soon be looking for bereavement support services in our area to help her finally overcome her pain.

  34. Terri  August 19, 2018 at 8:03 am Reply

    I was diagnosed with a tumor on my sigmoid colon May 2017, They removed it and I was cancer free. Still cancer free. About 6 mos after my coworker was diagnosed with a tumor in her pancreas. Not able to remove. She did chemo, and worked everyday. 6 mos later and her tumor wasn’t gone but had shrunk, still inoperable. New chemo radiation set up… She was down to 84 lbs, still working everyday. She started having more pain. Horrible pain. She went for a ct scan last Thursday, I last saw her Wednesday. She died yesterday. She fought so hard. I’m soooo sad and I feel so guilty. She suffered so much and I’m fine. Also we have ANOTHER cancer patient at work, also going through hell. They removed one tumor but couldn’t get the other. He hasn’t returned to work and he’s suffering… I feel soooo bad. I didn’t need chemo or radiation. Just a surgery. I feel guilty that I’m ok

  35. Jax  June 26, 2018 at 12:07 am Reply

    I think I’m dealing with this. Coworkers were involved in an armed bank robbery this past weekend. Normally I work Saturdays but was off this past Saturday on vacation. They were subjected to the kind of horrible bank takeover you see in movies. I get angry at the perpetrators of this crime and thencry because of what my coworkers suffered through. I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow because I’m scared and my anxiety is off the charts. I’m going to see my therapist before I go to work. I already have a PTSD diagnosis because of past trauma and I think this just triggered more anxiety. I broke down crying tonight because I dont want to go back there, but don’t hsve a choice.

  36. shay  June 24, 2018 at 2:20 am Reply

    my best friend and i used to get high together. we were both addicted to iv meth. one day i texted him to see if he could get any for me, and together we went to pick up a bag. we got high together and went our separate ways.
    long story short, we had picked up from a bad batch and used from the same bag. that day we both overdosed. i lived, he didn’t. i found out he had died months later. i thought he was avoiding me the entirety of those few months, and came to hate him over it until i learned he had died.
    the last thing i ever texted him was: ‘be careful dude, there’s something wrong with that dope. be safe.’
    i have never moved past it, it hasn’t gotten any easier. it’s been almost two years- october 11, 2016.

  37. Margaret Lind  May 28, 2018 at 5:27 pm Reply

    There’s another form of survival guilt that even you don’t talk about — over a period of years from 2007 to 2010… everyone died. My father in 2007 when I was taking care of my husband who was dying; my husband in 2009; my little sister (of cervical cancer) July 4th weekend, 2010; my best friend in October 2010 ( I discovered her death… when I went to see if she was still going to follow me to the mechanic’s… she wasn’t…); my mother followed in 2010. My guilt is complicated by a difficult relationship with my parents and my sister’s lifelong hatred of me (the only way I can describe it) although we were on good terms when she passed. This has affected her children, who now reject me. People I turned to help had no handle on why I couldn’t just “get over it.” There’s so much guilt, I’m swimming in it! So I’m probably going to be hanging out on your site for some time…

  38. Margaret Lind  May 28, 2018 at 5:27 pm Reply

    There’s another form of survival guilt that even you don’t talk about — over a period of years from 2007 to 2010… everyone died. My father in 2007 when I was taking care of my husband who was dying; my husband in 2009; my little sister (of cervical cancer) July 4th weekend, 2010; my best friend in October 2010 ( I discovered her death… when I went to see if she was still going to follow me to the mechanic’s… she wasn’t…); my mother followed in 2010. My guilt is complicated by a difficult relationship with my parents and my sister’s lifelong hatred of me (the only way I can describe it) although we were on good terms when she passed. This has affected her children, who now reject me. People I turned to help had no handle on why I couldn’t just “get over it.” There’s so much guilt, I’m swimming in it! So I’m probably going to be hanging out on your site for some time…

  39. Jay  February 22, 2018 at 4:23 am Reply

    I was enlisted in the army before we were to deploy I fell asleep at the wheel the wreak ended my military career. So my unit deployed without me in iraq one of my best friends took my place. He was killed by an ied on the very first patrol. I should have been there it should have been me I could have stopped it or I could of at least died in his place rather then lose him. And now almost eleven years I still can’t get over it. Also to make matters worst at ten years to the day another brother was killed by a Afghan soldier they where Training opened fire on my brothers. I will never forgive myself fore not being there for them when they need me the most. Rip Josh and Cole

  40. Jay  February 22, 2018 at 4:23 am Reply

    I was enlisted in the army before we were to deploy I fell asleep at the wheel the wreak ended my military career. So my unit deployed without me in iraq one of my best friends took my place. He was killed by an ied on the very first patrol. I should have been there it should have been me I could have stopped it or I could of at least died in his place rather then lose him. And now almost eleven years I still can’t get over it. Also to make matters worst at ten years to the day another brother was killed by a Afghan soldier they where Training opened fire on my brothers. I will never forgive myself fore not being there for them when they need me the most. Rip Josh and Cole

  41. Sarah  December 3, 2017 at 5:59 pm Reply

    I was in an accident about a month ago now. A man fell asleep at the wheel and hit a semi truck head on. I was just leaving work with a friend and we hit the debre and the car went into the ditch. Called 911 and when we went to see if the guy in the car was alright (the truck driver was fine) all we saw was his body covered in blood and was partially on fire.
    You always imagine yourself as someone who will do whatever they can to save someone else, put out the fire , put pressure on his wounds, try CPR until help arrived. But in the moment , all I could do was scream and fall to the ground and cry.
    He did pass away, God rest his soul.
    But not being able to live up to your own expectations to help someone, failing not only them but yourself… how do you come back from that, how do you live the rest of your life knowing that when it comes down to it, you can’t be relied on to help someone when they need it the most? All because I was too scared to try.

  42. Sarah  December 3, 2017 at 5:59 pm Reply

    I was in an accident about a month ago now. A man fell asleep at the wheel and hit a semi truck head on. I was just leaving work with a friend and we hit the debre and the car went into the ditch. Called 911 and when we went to see if the guy in the car was alright (the truck driver was fine) all we saw was his body covered in blood and was partially on fire.
    You always imagine yourself as someone who will do whatever they can to save someone else, put out the fire , put pressure on his wounds, try CPR until help arrived. But in the moment , all I could do was scream and fall to the ground and cry.
    He did pass away, God rest his soul.
    But not being able to live up to your own expectations to help someone, failing not only them but yourself… how do you come back from that, how do you live the rest of your life knowing that when it comes down to it, you can’t be relied on to help someone when they need it the most? All because I was too scared to try.

    • Tony  December 30, 2017 at 5:40 pm Reply

      Sarah,

      I am sorry that you had to go through that. I had a similar experience in September witnessing my father go over a mountain in a piece of farm equipment. I called 911, and yelled after him. There was no response, I went down the mountain. I found him dead with the equipment on top of him on the road below. The neighbors arrived, and urged me to help my dad, some reminding me that was my dad down there as if never occurred to me. All I could do was stare blankly at his body, a 34 year old man reduced to a helpless 4 year old boy. I managed to follow the ambulance to the local hospital where I collapsed in the parking lot. I have since felt like a horrible son to my dad, and wish I died too with him on daily basis. You are not alone, and never let anyone make you out to be cowardly because you screamed.

  43. Mike  December 3, 2017 at 1:16 am Reply

    I’m just a ho-hum army vet. And thats the problem. For whatever reasons, the units to which I was assigned never deployed. And since then, I ‘ve seen comrades not make it back… I’ve seen those who make it back, but are so scarred that they killed themselves. And I feel pain. Like, if there was an opportunity that I could have laid myself down, to shield them from the pain, whether real pain of IEDs or emotional pain of readjustment…. where did I fail them?

  44. Mike  December 3, 2017 at 1:16 am Reply

    I’m just a ho-hum army vet. And thats the problem. For whatever reasons, the units to which I was assigned never deployed. And since then, I ‘ve seen comrades not make it back… I’ve seen those who make it back, but are so scarred that they killed themselves. And I feel pain. Like, if there was an opportunity that I could have laid myself down, to shield them from the pain, whether real pain of IEDs or emotional pain of readjustment…. where did I fail them?

  45. bella  November 15, 2017 at 2:48 pm Reply

    im sad as fuck now fuck you guys

    • Eleanor Haley  October 4, 2017 at 1:22 pm Reply

      April, I’m so sorry for what you and everyone at the Route 91 Festival has been through over the last few days. It is devastating and heartbreaking and a million other things. I think it’s normal to feel what you’re feeling in response to this traumatic situation. Experiences like this, where innocent people are hurt or killed, violate all our assumptions about the world. It makes perfect sense that you would be asking WHY? I’m glad you are safe and I hope that with time you are able to find some peace.

    • Anne  October 4, 2017 at 9:12 pm Reply

      April, I feel the same way. Thank you for writing about your experience. I, too, was at the concert Friday and Saturday. I never had intentions of being there Sunday, but it hits too close to home. I look at my wrist band, the photos from the days before, and the videos of the horror and I can’t stop myself from crying. Why Sunday? Why not Saturday? Or Friday? How did I get so lucky when so many other did not. Why did these innocent people face this terror and I didn’t? I brushed shoulders, I danced, I sang along, and enjoyed the festival with these innocent and incredible people. But why did I walk away without a scratch? And then I feel guilty for even feeling this way because I wasn’t there and did not see the horror. I’m just so confused on how to feel. Thank you for sharing your experience because I feel there are others who share the same.

      • April  October 4, 2017 at 11:22 pm

        Anne I am so glad you commented. It felt like I was the only one in my situation, even though I know so many thousands of people went and the majority of people are physically fine. It is an overwhelming, confusing, depressing feeling. I think anyone who bought tickets and had the 3 day pass will have some sort of mental trauma for so long regardless if they were there that night or not.

        I didn’t get out of bed until 12:30 today. I haven’t cried today but instead feel a type of depression I’ve never experienced before. I feel like a shell of a person. Then I just found out my best friends cousin was there and was shot. She didn’t make it. Her name was Angela Gomez. I feel like crawling in a hole and not being around anyone. I’ve heard each day gets better but it’s a slow process. I wish I could not go to work this week and take time but I can’t. How are you doing today, Anne?

    • Pedro Elizalde  October 5, 2017 at 3:58 am Reply

      hi April,
      Hope this comment finds you in a better state of mind and moving forward. I was also there this weekend in the crowd by the stage when the unimaginable happened. I can’t erase the images from my head, and I’ve been dwelling on the same question as everyone else since “why?”
      “why am I here, when so many others aren’t” seems to be on repeat in my mind.
      I was advised to speak to my doctor and he was able to refer me to local counseling . You should give it a try, this has been one traumatic experience for all of us. Talking to a professional could help us get back to our normal routines

      To you and everyone else who was affected by this tragic event, especially the families who lost someone they love. My deepest sympathies and condolences, I know there are no words that can take describe the pain and suffering your enduring over your loss. May the care and love of those around us provide comfort and peace to get us all through the days ahead.

    • Anthony Borquez  October 5, 2017 at 10:40 am Reply

      My Wife and I survived the Route 91 Shooting, we have put together a support page on Facebook for anyone struggling to cope. Talking about it and helping other will get us through it.

    • TC  October 6, 2017 at 10:26 pm Reply

      April, I am going through all of the same thoughts. My best friends birthday was Friday and her dad lives in Henderson. We had plans with them Friday and Saturday. Sunday was open and we knew that the festival was going as it was 2 years ago when we were down there and listened to it from the strip. I skimmed the artist list for Sunday, but she didn’t want to leave the house, pool and hot tub. I have to reiterate the skim part of the story. I didn’t notice that Big and Rich were on the list. We’re big fans! Had I noticed that they were playing.. Well… we would have been in the festival. I was up at 4 am watching the news, crying. At 5 am our phones started to ring, first was her mom, next was mine… then they wouldn’t quit ringing with people back home knowing that we should have been there. I Facebook posted that we were ok. Now that I am home I am going through so many emotions. I had a doctor appointment already scheduled for today, and my doctor asked me if I went to the concert and I explained the story and how I feel now. He was the one that said that its survivors guilt. I just hung up on my dads wife because she told me that I have no reason to feel like this! I am going through the should’ve, would’ve, could’ve thoughts. I am wanting to know why it all happened to everyone who was hurt and gone…. Why did my circumstances turn right for me and my best friend but not for the other people….. I just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone!

  46. bella  November 15, 2017 at 2:48 pm Reply

    im sad as fuck now fuck you guys

    • Maxwell  November 30, 2017 at 1:30 pm Reply

      LAMO

    • Ashton Samual  November 30, 2017 at 1:33 pm Reply

      yo same, sad as fuck.

    • Ashton Sherry  November 30, 2017 at 1:35 pm Reply

      yo same

  47. B. A. Madden  November 9, 2017 at 12:02 pm Reply

    When I was 14 years old, I had the opportunity to leave my urban neighborhood of Queens and attend high school in an affluent suburb of Connecticut. While I was receiving the best education, my friends back home weren’t being steered in the right direction by their guidance counselor system. The education they received was subpar and they told me stories of not even being allowed to take textbooks home. I managed to graduated high school on time, my friends got in trouble with the law, had to get GED’s and hardly ever graduated on time. A career was an after thought. Many worked late hours in high school to help their family with bills. What was this like for them? Imagine if they had the opportunity to just focus on school. I went on the graduate from one of the most prestigious universities in Connecticut. I started my pretty salaries job shortly after graduation. Coming back home, there is now a weird gap between me and my friends. Why is that happening? I constantly find myself talking to my friends to propel them to the level I’m currently at. The conversation is different. Everyone is unhappy and I’m constantly doing things to make up for my survivors guilt. Sometimes I think If I stayed around, I could’ve made all their lives better.

  48. B. A. Madden  November 9, 2017 at 12:02 pm Reply

    When I was 14 years old, I had the opportunity to leave my urban neighborhood of Queens and attend high school in an affluent suburb of Connecticut. While I was receiving the best education, my friends back home weren’t being steered in the right direction by their guidance counselor system. The education they received was subpar and they told me stories of not even being allowed to take textbooks home. I managed to graduated high school on time, my friends got in trouble with the law, had to get GED’s and hardly ever graduated on time. A career was an after thought. Many worked late hours in high school to help their family with bills. What was this like for them? Imagine if they had the opportunity to just focus on school. I went on the graduate from one of the most prestigious universities in Connecticut. I started my pretty salaries job shortly after graduation. Coming back home, there is now a weird gap between me and my friends. Why is that happening? I constantly find myself talking to my friends to propel them to the level I’m currently at. The conversation is different. Everyone is unhappy and I’m constantly doing things to make up for my survivors guilt. Sometimes I think If I stayed around, I could’ve made all their lives better.

    • Kumari  November 19, 2017 at 12:31 am Reply

      yes, sometimes survivor guilt is not related to death. . . I wonder what we are to do with our survivor guilt?

  49. Priscilla Rocco  November 5, 2017 at 9:49 am Reply

    I have been suffering from survivor’s guilt as a part of my PTSD for twenty years, and depression and anxiety all my life. I survived an abusive family, poverty, and a host of circumstances that were out of my control, which has left me battling a pervasive feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and worthlessness for all of my 65 years. I have also been trying to understand this misery in a way that I can salvage what is left of my life . This article and all of the comments have helped more than years of counseling. It is only lately that I have realized that most counselors are not equipped to help with these complicated problems. Only a counselor with a specialty in PTSD or survivor’s guilt or an associated field is qualified to help, and then only if their goal is helping the patient leave counseling, rather than seeing patients as merely a steady revenue stream. I have also noticed that women tend to be a majority of the sufferers, and that in itself illuminates a systemic pathology where women are programmed to nurture to such a high standard, that they inevitably “fail”, and then having “failed”, are programmed to punish themselves until the end of time. Each person’s story here shows how a confluence of circumstances and events can redirect any life onto a dead end street of misery and pain. I feel for everyone who has posted here. It makes me feel less alone.

  50. Priscilla Rocco  November 5, 2017 at 9:49 am Reply

    I have been suffering from survivor’s guilt as a part of my PTSD for twenty years, and depression and anxiety all my life. I survived an abusive family, poverty, and a host of circumstances that were out of my control, which has left me battling a pervasive feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and worthlessness for all of my 65 years. I have also been trying to understand this misery in a way that I can salvage what is left of my life . This article and all of the comments have helped more than years of counseling. It is only lately that I have realized that most counselors are not equipped to help with these complicated problems. Only a counselor with a specialty in PTSD or survivor’s guilt or an associated field is qualified to help, and then only if their goal is helping the patient leave counseling, rather than seeing patients as merely a steady revenue stream. I have also noticed that women tend to be a majority of the sufferers, and that in itself illuminates a systemic pathology where women are programmed to nurture to such a high standard, that they inevitably “fail”, and then having “failed”, are programmed to punish themselves until the end of time. Each person’s story here shows how a confluence of circumstances and events can redirect any life onto a dead end street of misery and pain. I feel for everyone who has posted here. It makes me feel less alone.

  51. Katie Johnson  October 21, 2017 at 1:21 pm Reply

    On august 28th 1988 i was 20 years and stationed in Kaiserslautern Germany! With nothing to do that day we decided to head to the Flutag on Ramstein AFB! A decision that has haunted and tormented me for now 29 years! That day an Italian fighter jet pilot made an unfortunate critical error in the air and slammed his plane into the front of another in his formation! I won’t and well cannot go into great detail however the result was catastrophic! Three pilots were killed and 67 people on the ground lost their lives as well! 30 of them instantly when part of a burning plane smashed into them while we were all on the flight line! I was with that group and how I survived I have no idea! I believe the fact that I was standing about 20 feet from a Mo gas tanker is what saved my life because the burning plane impacted that as well and that caused me to be blown about thirty feet in the opposite direction! That day changed my life forever! I believe my life was never what it could’ve been because of it! I’ve spent thirty years shoving guilt, horror fear and all emotions down so far that it’s actually painful! It made me a cold emotionless person! I’ve have never been able to have a very successful relationship with anyone because I can’t show emotion or really even feel it! It was a miracle I had my daughter and was able to love her like I did and raise her well! I never got any counseling or help or anything after that day! I got up the next day numb and in denial and reported for Work call formation as normal! I spent 10 years suffering from what? I didn’t even know! In 98 when I felt like I was having I guess a break down I went to a specialist who said oh yep u have PTSD. Here take these pills! Slapped me on the back and said good luck! That was it! My guilt causes me to see those people who died horrifically and later died suffering
    From the horrible injuries, every single day of my life! The only reason I can even type this small bit of about the incident is due to my amazing therapist that I have just this year been able to have! I know part of my suffering is not just crowds and chaos loud starling noises fireworks the list goes on and on but my overwhelming sense of paralyzing guilt that I walked away without being able to save those people from that horrible day! I am learning the fundamentals of this from which i suffer! It’s helping me face it! It’s the slowest process of anything I’ve ever done! For months I’ve been trying to write a letter to the victims! Why can’t I get farther then just writing the date? I don’t even know how to start the letter! I can’t write, dear dead people, that’s horrible ! Can anyone give me any advice whatsoever? Even if it’s just the opening sentence! I know I have to do this and I’m trying so hard to face all of this! I’m scare and I feel worthless because I should’ve most certainly died that day! I feel like a part of me did die that day! Sometimes I wish I had died that day because suffering like I have for thirty years and the effect it’s had on every aspect of my life has been horrible! Thank you to all that takes the time to read this! I can’t go any further besides I’m sure I’ve written more then I should’ve! Thank you , Katie

  52. Katie Johnson  October 21, 2017 at 1:21 pm Reply

    On august 28th 1988 i was 20 years and stationed in Kaiserslautern Germany! With nothing to do that day we decided to head to the Flutag on Ramstein AFB! A decision that has haunted and tormented me for now 29 years! That day an Italian fighter jet pilot made an unfortunate critical error in the air and slammed his plane into the front of another in his formation! I won’t and well cannot go into great detail however the result was catastrophic! Three pilots were killed and 67 people on the ground lost their lives as well! 30 of them instantly when part of a burning plane smashed into them while we were all on the flight line! I was with that group and how I survived I have no idea! I believe the fact that I was standing about 20 feet from a Mo gas tanker is what saved my life because the burning plane impacted that as well and that caused me to be blown about thirty feet in the opposite direction! That day changed my life forever! I believe my life was never what it could’ve been because of it! I’ve spent thirty years shoving guilt, horror fear and all emotions down so far that it’s actually painful! It made me a cold emotionless person! I’ve have never been able to have a very successful relationship with anyone because I can’t show emotion or really even feel it! It was a miracle I had my daughter and was able to love her like I did and raise her well! I never got any counseling or help or anything after that day! I got up the next day numb and in denial and reported for Work call formation as normal! I spent 10 years suffering from what? I didn’t even know! In 98 when I felt like I was having I guess a break down I went to a specialist who said oh yep u have PTSD. Here take these pills! Slapped me on the back and said good luck! That was it! My guilt causes me to see those people who died horrifically and later died suffering
    From the horrible injuries, every single day of my life! The only reason I can even type this small bit of about the incident is due to my amazing therapist that I have just this year been able to have! I know part of my suffering is not just crowds and chaos loud starling noises fireworks the list goes on and on but my overwhelming sense of paralyzing guilt that I walked away without being able to save those people from that horrible day! I am learning the fundamentals of this from which i suffer! It’s helping me face it! It’s the slowest process of anything I’ve ever done! For months I’ve been trying to write a letter to the victims! Why can’t I get farther then just writing the date? I don’t even know how to start the letter! I can’t write, dear dead people, that’s horrible ! Can anyone give me any advice whatsoever? Even if it’s just the opening sentence! I know I have to do this and I’m trying so hard to face all of this! I’m scare and I feel worthless because I should’ve most certainly died that day! I feel like a part of me did die that day! Sometimes I wish I had died that day because suffering like I have for thirty years and the effect it’s had on every aspect of my life has been horrible! Thank you to all that takes the time to read this! I can’t go any further besides I’m sure I’ve written more then I should’ve! Thank you , Katie

    • Apryl  February 9, 2019 at 11:09 pm Reply

      You’re so brave. Just write whatever comes to mind. You could always cross out what you don’t like and start over.

  53. Anette  October 16, 2017 at 2:04 pm Reply

    My best friend committed suicide two years, two months and six days today. I miss her everyday and I wish I had been there to save her. I had spoken to her that night and she had promised not to do anything rash until we saw each other the next day. I kept calling when morning came to no avail. Only to be the one to name her as the only one missing when everyone was still guessing. I was there for everyone who cried in regret and listened to thier what ifs. Her suicide affected me greatly as dealing with survivors guilt has changed me not just socially but in every perspective of the person I am and who I will be. I still see her in the little things, I see her dancing in the rain or picking up a bird feather. I hear her voice in the wind and see her swimming amongst the waves. I can not help but feel like she deserved to live and I did not as we were facing the same problems in life. I could have easily been her. I have listened too so many people tell me I could not have saved her when I know in my heart that I could have talked her off the ledge.

  54. Anette  October 16, 2017 at 2:04 pm Reply

    My best friend committed suicide two years, two months and six days today. I miss her everyday and I wish I had been there to save her. I had spoken to her that night and she had promised not to do anything rash until we saw each other the next day. I kept calling when morning came to no avail. Only to be the one to name her as the only one missing when everyone was still guessing. I was there for everyone who cried in regret and listened to thier what ifs. Her suicide affected me greatly as dealing with survivors guilt has changed me not just socially but in every perspective of the person I am and who I will be. I still see her in the little things, I see her dancing in the rain or picking up a bird feather. I hear her voice in the wind and see her swimming amongst the waves. I can not help but feel like she deserved to live and I did not as we were facing the same problems in life. I could have easily been her. I have listened too so many people tell me I could not have saved her when I know in my heart that I could have talked her off the ledge.

  55. Laurel Hansen  October 12, 2017 at 10:38 am Reply

    For eight years I have been a 24/7 caregiver for my husband who has Lewy Body Dementia. His doctor told me that my husband is in the end stages of dementia because he needs help with every aspect of daily living…bathing, dressing, eating, teeth brushing, shaving, hair combing, etc. I recently placed him in a care center which has been extremely hard for me. I keep thinking this is the wrong decision, because I know can take better care of him than the care center can. He is always asking to come home and the center has told me he worries about me and keeps wanting to call me..but they have tried to redirect and help him focus on other things to help him acclimate better. Because of the roller coaster ride type of dementia that Lewy’s is, my doctor has told me that I am in an endlessly looping grief cycle. She just told me at my last appointment that I am also suffering survivor’s guilt…because of my inability to let things be, to accept that my husband is slowing dying and it is not my fault. She said I need to start believing that putting him in a care center was best for my husband and for me. After reading your post…I now understand why she told me I am in survivor guilt mode. Now I need to learn how to navigate the in’s and out’s of this so that I can begin to heal.

  56. Laurel Hansen  October 12, 2017 at 10:38 am Reply

    For eight years I have been a 24/7 caregiver for my husband who has Lewy Body Dementia. His doctor told me that my husband is in the end stages of dementia because he needs help with every aspect of daily living…bathing, dressing, eating, teeth brushing, shaving, hair combing, etc. I recently placed him in a care center which has been extremely hard for me. I keep thinking this is the wrong decision, because I know can take better care of him than the care center can. He is always asking to come home and the center has told me he worries about me and keeps wanting to call me..but they have tried to redirect and help him focus on other things to help him acclimate better. Because of the roller coaster ride type of dementia that Lewy’s is, my doctor has told me that I am in an endlessly looping grief cycle. She just told me at my last appointment that I am also suffering survivor’s guilt…because of my inability to let things be, to accept that my husband is slowing dying and it is not my fault. She said I need to start believing that putting him in a care center was best for my husband and for me. After reading your post…I now understand why she told me I am in survivor guilt mode. Now I need to learn how to navigate the in’s and out’s of this so that I can begin to heal.

  57. April  October 3, 2017 at 7:39 pm Reply

    I think I am dealing with this. I was just in Vegas for the route 91 harvest festival with my cousin. We were at the festival both Friday and Saturday nights. We were at the Mandalay Bay at the club on Saturday night. We were right there.

    Sunday we decided at the last minute NOT to go to the concert but to instead walk around in some of the hotels. We were walking the strip when we saw cop car after cop car pass us by in the direction we were walking. We could feel that something wasn’t right after the 10th or 15th cop car.

    We made it back to our hotel just as the first twitter stories were being posted. We were crossing the street where the festival was 2.5 hours before the shooting happened. We were right there. We stood at our window facing the strip as we heard all the other stories of there being a shooter in this hotel and that hotel. Then we saw people running from the lobby in our hotel. We thought there must be gunfire right below us. We were shaking, hearts pounding.

    We spent hours watching the news and following social media. We were right there. We were supposed to be at that show. If my cousin hadn’t already seen Jason Aldean prior to this festival we would have been at that show.

    i can’t seem to stop crying. How could all these people die and be injured when I was fine? So many of those people probably deserved that less and would have had more to go back to than we did. How could we not be there to potentially help shield people or take a bullet somewhere for someone else. I know it hasn’t been long but I’m really struggling with it and I have never felt this way.

    I feel guilty for feeling this way which makes it worse. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to stop crying.

    • kerri  October 4, 2017 at 12:20 am Reply

      April I was in the hotel too. Can’t stop crying. We got evacuated to the basement. We were put in a room for 10 hours with just the news showing us. It was awful. I know what you’re feeling.

  58. April  October 3, 2017 at 7:39 pm Reply

    I think I am dealing with this. I was just in Vegas for the route 91 harvest festival with my cousin. We were at the festival both Friday and Saturday nights. We were at the Mandalay Bay at the club on Saturday night. We were right there.

    Sunday we decided at the last minute NOT to go to the concert but to instead walk around in some of the hotels. We were walking the strip when we saw cop car after cop car pass us by in the direction we were walking. We could feel that something wasn’t right after the 10th or 15th cop car.

    We made it back to our hotel just as the first twitter stories were being posted. We were crossing the street where the festival was 2.5 hours before the shooting happened. We were right there. We stood at our window facing the strip as we heard all the other stories of there being a shooter in this hotel and that hotel. Then we saw people running from the lobby in our hotel. We thought there must be gunfire right below us. We were shaking, hearts pounding.

    We spent hours watching the news and following social media. We were right there. We were supposed to be at that show. If my cousin hadn’t already seen Jason Aldean prior to this festival we would have been at that show.

    i can’t seem to stop crying. How could all these people die and be injured when I was fine? So many of those people probably deserved that less and would have had more to go back to than we did. How could we not be there to potentially help shield people or take a bullet somewhere for someone else. I know it hasn’t been long but I’m really struggling with it and I have never felt this way.

    I feel guilty for feeling this way which makes it worse. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to stop crying.

    • kerri  October 4, 2017 at 12:20 am Reply

      April I was in the hotel too. Can’t stop crying. We got evacuated to the basement. We were put in a room for 10 hours with just the news showing us. It was awful. I know what you’re feeling.

    • Eleanor Haley  October 4, 2017 at 1:22 pm Reply

      April, I’m so sorry for what you and everyone at the Route 91 Festival has been through over the last few days. It is devastating and heartbreaking and a million other things. I think it’s normal to feel what you’re feeling in response to this traumatic situation. Experiences like this, where innocent people are hurt or killed, violate all our assumptions about the world. It makes perfect sense that you would be asking WHY? I’m glad you are safe and I hope that with time you are able to find some peace.

    • Anne  October 4, 2017 at 9:12 pm Reply

      April, I feel the same way. Thank you for writing about your experience. I, too, was at the concert Friday and Saturday. I never had intentions of being there Sunday, but it hits too close to home. I look at my wrist band, the photos from the days before, and the videos of the horror and I can’t stop myself from crying. Why Sunday? Why not Saturday? Or Friday? How did I get so lucky when so many other did not. Why did these innocent people face this terror and I didn’t? I brushed shoulders, I danced, I sang along, and enjoyed the festival with these innocent and incredible people. But why did I walk away without a scratch? And then I feel guilty for even feeling this way because I wasn’t there and did not see the horror. I’m just so confused on how to feel. Thank you for sharing your experience because I feel there are others who share the same.

      • April  October 4, 2017 at 11:22 pm

        Anne I am so glad you commented. It felt like I was the only one in my situation, even though I know so many thousands of people went and the majority of people are physically fine. It is an overwhelming, confusing, depressing feeling. I think anyone who bought tickets and had the 3 day pass will have some sort of mental trauma for so long regardless if they were there that night or not.

        I didn’t get out of bed until 12:30 today. I haven’t cried today but instead feel a type of depression I’ve never experienced before. I feel like a shell of a person. Then I just found out my best friends cousin was there and was shot. She didn’t make it. Her name was Angela Gomez. I feel like crawling in a hole and not being around anyone. I’ve heard each day gets better but it’s a slow process. I wish I could not go to work this week and take time but I can’t. How are you doing today, Anne?

    • Pedro Elizalde  October 5, 2017 at 3:58 am Reply

      hi April,
      Hope this comment finds you in a better state of mind and moving forward. I was also there this weekend in the crowd by the stage when the unimaginable happened. I can’t erase the images from my head, and I’ve been dwelling on the same question as everyone else since “why?”
      “why am I here, when so many others aren’t” seems to be on repeat in my mind.
      I was advised to speak to my doctor and he was able to refer me to local counseling . You should give it a try, this has been one traumatic experience for all of us. Talking to a professional could help us get back to our normal routines

      To you and everyone else who was affected by this tragic event, especially the families who lost someone they love. My deepest sympathies and condolences, I know there are no words that can take describe the pain and suffering your enduring over your loss. May the care and love of those around us provide comfort and peace to get us all through the days ahead.

    • Anthony Borquez  October 5, 2017 at 10:40 am Reply

      My Wife and I survived the Route 91 Shooting, we have put together a support page on Facebook for anyone struggling to cope. Talking about it and helping other will get us through it.

    • TC  October 6, 2017 at 10:26 pm Reply

      April, I am going through all of the same thoughts. My best friends birthday was Friday and her dad lives in Henderson. We had plans with them Friday and Saturday. Sunday was open and we knew that the festival was going as it was 2 years ago when we were down there and listened to it from the strip. I skimmed the artist list for Sunday, but she didn’t want to leave the house, pool and hot tub. I have to reiterate the skim part of the story. I didn’t notice that Big and Rich were on the list. We’re big fans! Had I noticed that they were playing.. Well… we would have been in the festival. I was up at 4 am watching the news, crying. At 5 am our phones started to ring, first was her mom, next was mine… then they wouldn’t quit ringing with people back home knowing that we should have been there. I Facebook posted that we were ok. Now that I am home I am going through so many emotions. I had a doctor appointment already scheduled for today, and my doctor asked me if I went to the concert and I explained the story and how I feel now. He was the one that said that its survivors guilt. I just hung up on my dads wife because she told me that I have no reason to feel like this! I am going through the should’ve, would’ve, could’ve thoughts. I am wanting to know why it all happened to everyone who was hurt and gone…. Why did my circumstances turn right for me and my best friend but not for the other people….. I just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone!

      • April  November 13, 2017 at 1:04 am

        Thank you for your comment. I hope you are part of the Facebook group. I still feel guilty for associating myself with real survivors but I’ve still been struggling. I’m now seeing a therapist too. I hope things are better for you

  59. Michael Reed  September 27, 2017 at 5:58 am Reply

    I lost my wife, my two daughters, my home, and our 3 pets in the wildfires in Tennessee last year. I truly understand all of the comments I’ve read to this point, but I have come to a crossroads in my survivors guilt and I would appreciate any and all feedback.

    Our story.

    That night, we had no idea the fires were raging all around us. There were no warnings, no sirens, no text alerts. Nothing. Absolutely zero communication. My son, who was 15 at the time, and I decided to leave our home just to go see what was going on to see if we needed to evacuate. We lived up in the mountains and couldn’t see anything around us. So we drove all the way down our mountain and nothing was on fire. Nothing. Not a single leaf. We got to the bottom and turned on to the main road going in and out of town. A few miles later we ended up stuck in traffic. We didn’t know why at the time, but it was because that part of town was already on fire. By this point it had maybe been 15-20 minutes since we had left home. My phone rang. My wife said “there are flames across the street. What do I do?” I told her to call 911. I said “I love you”. She said “I love you, too”. That was the last time we spoke.

    I don’t know how much time passed in between that phone call and the time we finally made it back to the base of our mountain, but once I made it back, I look up and all I could see was red. I felt helpless. But I had to do something. I had to get to them.

    So I went up. I drove through a wildfire. I had to get to them. Power lines, trees, winds, the howling and the rage of the fire consumed us. It was about a mile or two from the base of the mountain to our house, and as I turned the corner and saw the first house on our street covered in flames, I think that was the first moment where the true fear and panic set in. There were no fire trucks. No ambulances. Just red. Hell. An inferno. We couldn’t see five feet in front of us. Finally, I reached our home. Directly before my driveway was a massive tree across the road. I couldn’t go any further. I looked up and our house was completely engulfed. I got out in the middle of the road and screamed her name. Over and over and over. The howl was so loud I could barely hear myself screaming. Nothing. I heard in the distance, or so I thought, a very faint whisper. Come to find out it was my son screaming at the top of his lungs in the van parked right next to me. The fire was so loud I could barely hear him. He was screaming “Dad, we are going to die”.

    I don’t remember anything after that. I don’t know how we made it back down. I was numb. All I remember is holding the steering wheel with one hand and my sons arm with the other. We drove to the next town over and went to a shelter. At that shelter we were told “They went door to door and got everyone out”. That ended up being a lie. But at the time we had no idea what was going on, so we waited there to reunite with them. We assumed they were just at a different shelter. We were wrong.

    They were found six days later about a half mile from our home in another cabin. They were found together holding each other. That home burned down, too, along with nearly 2,500 other structures around it.

    Now I’m sure by reading all of this so far that you already know where my survivors guilt comes from. It comes from us leaving that night to go see what was going on, right? Sort of. But there’s more.

    Ive never told this whole part of the story publicly, so allow me to give you a little background information.

    My wife was molested as a child by her stepfather. As an adult, she suffered from PTSD, bipolar disorder, social anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder, and chronic depression. She was unable to work but did all she could do to function. After the fire, a video we made two years earlier went viral. In it, she shared her story of abuse.

    In the video she blamed her mother for a lot of her abuse. She never protected her. She claimed that when she told her mom she was being touched, her mom dismissed it. A big part of her trauma was the helplessness and abandonment she felt for years of her childhood.

    Now that you know the backstory, here is the part I’ve never talked about.

    Well, once that video went viral, her mom saw it. My wife had always wondered if her mom ever saw the video. I don’t know if she ever saw it before the fire, but I do know she saw it after. She called my father and demanded her I take the video down. I refused. She called all the news stations that had shared it and demanded they take it down. They refused. And that is when, after everything we had already been through, the real hell began.

    Her mother began blasting me online. She accused me of “being the one who started the fire”. (The fire was actually set five days earlier in the National Park by two teenage boys playing with matches. The park let it burn and watched it spread for five days until it finally got completely out of control. By then, it was too late). She accused me of “leaving them in a burning home”. Again…nothing was on fire when we left that night. She accused me of “doing it for insurance money”. And the worst of all, she accused me of “intentionally leaving them there to die”.

    Now rationally I know none of this is true. But there were small groups of people over time that saw her accusations and assumed “if its on the internet, it must be true”. And to this day, once in a great while I’ll get wind of someone saying “he left them there”. And it brings me full circle back to hell.

    My survivors guilt has been horrible. But when you compound it to her mother saying these horrible lies about my son and I it makes it that much worse. I’ve never spoken about her mothers accusations publicly, because I feel by giving her the time of day I am allowing her to have too much power over my thoughts. But deep down inside it hurts. Bad. And it is taking its toll both on my health and my sanity.

    After the fire, I spent months in what I call “the darkness”. It is so dark. So lonely. I held a knife to my wrist several times. But every time it got that low I thought of my son. He needs me. I can’t do this to him. Weekly counseling, psychiatry appointments, and antidepressants didn’t curb the darkness. I had to do something to do something through this nightmare.

    So after asking God what to do (by the way, I spent months cursing Him, but He never left my side) I woke up one day and asked Him how to honor them. He told me I needed to create a foundation to help others experiencing child sexual abuse. So I did. If you log onto Facebook.com/thereedfoundation you can see our work so far. We are working with congress to pass what we have called “Constance’s Bill”, which creates a nationwide text alert number for children to use who are being abused. I also created a movement called #ShedTheShame™, which is a platform for adult survivors of child abuse to come forward and share their stories with others. Hundreds if not thousands of people have come forward since its inception, and every day I wake up I know my girls are proud for the work we are trying to do.

    But every day…every…single…day…I hear her mom in my head. “You left them there”. “You left them there”. “You left them there”.

    I know I can’t go any further in my healing until I get past this. But I don’t know how to do it or what to do. My therapist tells me to tell myself every day “I did all I could. It’s not my fault” but that is Impossible for me to say at times.

    I thank you for the opportunity to tell the story. I will pray for all of you as you journey through your own individual stories.

    If any of you would like to reach out to me personally, I can be reached at http://www.ConstancesStory.com, http://www.ShedTheShame.com, or I can be directly messaged through the foundation Facebook page, which I listed above.

    God bless all of you.

    Faith. Hope. Love.

    • Kristen Kirkland  November 26, 2020 at 6:51 am Reply

      First of all Michael your story is gut-wrenching and your loss is unimaginable. You seem to be an extremely strong and well-balanced human being and foremost, one of the most bravest of a husband and father. What makes my heart happy is that you were able to tell her that you loved her. That’s incredibly important. God bless you.
      Now, if I may share my story with you? It involves child, teen, early twenties sexual abuse and the death of my spouse. Oh, did I mention too that I had a mother that did not listen either.

      My story:

      Please bear with me as I struggle to write this part of my life. It is something that I like to keep buried and after viewing many comments and articles have realized that this almost narcissistic type behavior have is a form of survivor’s guilt, among a host of other issues stemming from my past. Not that I feel entitled, but incapable of empathy, love, and the ability to engage in a healthy, happy relationship of any kind.

      On August 1, 1991 at 7:30 in the morning my super handsome husband of a whopping 26 years old got up to go to work. He loved his job, he was almost done with his apprenticeship to become a Master Mechanic with big dreams of making a wonderful for our 4 year old daughter and 1 year old son, his namesake. The next day was to be our 6th year anniversary and he was so excited about it. We had the sitter lined up which was his sister, she was 14 at the time. We were supposed to have picked her up on July 31, and have her spend the next few days with us but my mother-in-law(may she RIP) suggested my husband Bobby pick her up after work on the 1st.
      So, the night before, I wasn’t feeling too well, Aunt Martha came to visit, we know what that code is, so we ended up having frozen burritos for dinner. Are you kidding me? Southern family having frozen burritos, but yes we did. Anyway he got up, I got up with him as I always did, that man made my heart tumble and spin I’m telling you. I would’ve moved mountains for him, he was also my high school sweetheart. So, I kissed that lovely man goodbye, told him to have a good day as I always did. Also, told him couldn’t wait for him to get home. One minute away was too much. Sure didn’t know that would be my last time touching the love of my life. My soul mate. He made my heart race and skip beats. Who gets to really feel that? So, I went back to bed and a couple hours later heard really hard knocking on my door and my mom yelling for me. Jumped out of bed and she looked like she had seen a ghost and my instant reaction was something happened to my dad. So I kept asking if it was dad. She said in these exact words, “Kris, there’s been an accident, Bobby’s dead”.
      I fell to the floor and felt like the world stopped turning. Literally. I just kept yelling at her to quit lying to me because she hated him.
      Come to find out, the van he was driving was hauling a transmission that he was selling to get money for an anniversary gift for me. The accident occurred a quarter mile from our house. He went off the road, hit a tree and the transmission from the back of the van lifted up and hit him in the back of the head causing him to go through the windshield, hitting the tree himself. I was assured he died on impact.
      My 4 year old was with my mom and they drove right by the accident scene to get to my house. Do you see where my survivor guilt is coming from?
      As my mom is driving me to his mom’s house, she drops me off that morning, whispers in my ear, “I didn’t mean it when I said I wished he would hit a tree and die”. What mother says that to a child that just lost her husband? Yeah, my mom does. Plus she made me call my dad at work and tell him, she wouldn’t do it, you know a girl wants her daddy when times get tough. Damn she was mean rotten lady.
      I can’t go into the rest of it right now, but I have survivor’s guilt and it is ruining my life, not only that, I simply cannot get over his death. Period.

      • IsabelleS  November 27, 2020 at 11:35 am

        Kristen, I’m truly so sorry to hear about your loss. The love you and your husband shared sounds so special. I completely understand that you feel guilty… This is so normal and okay. However, please be gentle with yourself and know that you could not have prevented this. You may want to seek the help of a grief counselor, which you can find here: https://grief.com/grief-counselor-directory/. I hope this website/community brings you some comfort and shows you that, no matter what, you are NOT alone. All the best to youl.

  60. Michael Reed  September 27, 2017 at 5:58 am Reply

    I lost my wife, my two daughters, my home, and our 3 pets in the wildfires in Tennessee last year. I truly understand all of the comments I’ve read to this point, but I have come to a crossroads in my survivors guilt and I would appreciate any and all feedback.

    Our story.

    That night, we had no idea the fires were raging all around us. There were no warnings, no sirens, no text alerts. Nothing. Absolutely zero communication. My son, who was 15 at the time, and I decided to leave our home just to go see what was going on to see if we needed to evacuate. We lived up in the mountains and couldn’t see anything around us. So we drove all the way down our mountain and nothing was on fire. Nothing. Not a single leaf. We got to the bottom and turned on to the main road going in and out of town. A few miles later we ended up stuck in traffic. We didn’t know why at the time, but it was because that part of town was already on fire. By this point it had maybe been 15-20 minutes since we had left home. My phone rang. My wife said “there are flames across the street. What do I do?” I told her to call 911. I said “I love you”. She said “I love you, too”. That was the last time we spoke.

    I don’t know how much time passed in between that phone call and the time we finally made it back to the base of our mountain, but once I made it back, I look up and all I could see was red. I felt helpless. But I had to do something. I had to get to them.

    So I went up. I drove through a wildfire. I had to get to them. Power lines, trees, winds, the howling and the rage of the fire consumed us. It was about a mile or two from the base of the mountain to our house, and as I turned the corner and saw the first house on our street covered in flames, I think that was the first moment where the true fear and panic set in. There were no fire trucks. No ambulances. Just red. Hell. An inferno. We couldn’t see five feet in front of us. Finally, I reached our home. Directly before my driveway was a massive tree across the road. I couldn’t go any further. I looked up and our house was completely engulfed. I got out in the middle of the road and screamed her name. Over and over and over. The howl was so loud I could barely hear myself screaming. Nothing. I heard in the distance, or so I thought, a very faint whisper. Come to find out it was my son screaming at the top of his lungs in the van parked right next to me. The fire was so loud I could barely hear him. He was screaming “Dad, we are going to die”.

    I don’t remember anything after that. I don’t know how we made it back down. I was numb. All I remember is holding the steering wheel with one hand and my sons arm with the other. We drove to the next town over and went to a shelter. At that shelter we were told “They went door to door and got everyone out”. That ended up being a lie. But at the time we had no idea what was going on, so we waited there to reunite with them. We assumed they were just at a different shelter. We were wrong.

    They were found six days later about a half mile from our home in another cabin. They were found together holding each other. That home burned down, too, along with nearly 2,500 other structures around it.

    Now I’m sure by reading all of this so far that you already know where my survivors guilt comes from. It comes from us leaving that night to go see what was going on, right? Sort of. But there’s more.

    Ive never told this whole part of the story publicly, so allow me to give you a little background information.

    My wife was molested as a child by her stepfather. As an adult, she suffered from PTSD, bipolar disorder, social anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder, and chronic depression. She was unable to work but did all she could do to function. After the fire, a video we made two years earlier went viral. In it, she shared her story of abuse.

    In the video she blamed her mother for a lot of her abuse. She never protected her. She claimed that when she told her mom she was being touched, her mom dismissed it. A big part of her trauma was the helplessness and abandonment she felt for years of her childhood.

    Now that you know the backstory, here is the part I’ve never talked about.

    Well, once that video went viral, her mom saw it. My wife had always wondered if her mom ever saw the video. I don’t know if she ever saw it before the fire, but I do know she saw it after. She called my father and demanded her I take the video down. I refused. She called all the news stations that had shared it and demanded they take it down. They refused. And that is when, after everything we had already been through, the real hell began.

    Her mother began blasting me online. She accused me of “being the one who started the fire”. (The fire was actually set five days earlier in the National Park by two teenage boys playing with matches. The park let it burn and watched it spread for five days until it finally got completely out of control. By then, it was too late). She accused me of “leaving them in a burning home”. Again…nothing was on fire when we left that night. She accused me of “doing it for insurance money”. And the worst of all, she accused me of “intentionally leaving them there to die”.

    Now rationally I know none of this is true. But there were small groups of people over time that saw her accusations and assumed “if its on the internet, it must be true”. And to this day, once in a great while I’ll get wind of someone saying “he left them there”. And it brings me full circle back to hell.

    My survivors guilt has been horrible. But when you compound it to her mother saying these horrible lies about my son and I it makes it that much worse. I’ve never spoken about her mothers accusations publicly, because I feel by giving her the time of day I am allowing her to have too much power over my thoughts. But deep down inside it hurts. Bad. And it is taking its toll both on my health and my sanity.

    After the fire, I spent months in what I call “the darkness”. It is so dark. So lonely. I held a knife to my wrist several times. But every time it got that low I thought of my son. He needs me. I can’t do this to him. Weekly counseling, psychiatry appointments, and antidepressants didn’t curb the darkness. I had to do something to do something through this nightmare.

    So after asking God what to do (by the way, I spent months cursing Him, but He never left my side) I woke up one day and asked Him how to honor them. He told me I needed to create a foundation to help others experiencing child sexual abuse. So I did. If you log onto Facebook.com/thereedfoundation you can see our work so far. We are working with congress to pass what we have called “Constance’s Bill”, which creates a nationwide text alert number for children to use who are being abused. I also created a movement called #ShedTheShame™, which is a platform for adult survivors of child abuse to come forward and share their stories with others. Hundreds if not thousands of people have come forward since its inception, and every day I wake up I know my girls are proud for the work we are trying to do.

    But every day…every…single…day…I hear her mom in my head. “You left them there”. “You left them there”. “You left them there”.

    I know I can’t go any further in my healing until I get past this. But I don’t know how to do it or what to do. My therapist tells me to tell myself every day “I did all I could. It’s not my fault” but that is Impossible for me to say at times.

    I thank you for the opportunity to tell the story. I will pray for all of you as you journey through your own individual stories.

    If any of you would like to reach out to me personally, I can be reached at http://www.ConstancesStory.com, http://www.ShedTheShame.com, or I can be directly messaged through the foundation Facebook page, which I listed above.

    God bless all of you.

    Faith. Hope. Love.

    1
    • Apryl  February 9, 2019 at 11:28 pm Reply

      You’re amazing.

      1
  61. Dianne Allen  September 17, 2017 at 8:49 pm Reply

    I just survived a major hurricane in Florida. Millions are without electricity and many have lost everything they once possessed. Some have lost their life. It was a harrowing week leading into the storm then during the storm and now it has been a week since the storm went through my hometown. As the power was being restored slowly, I began to feel some deep upset that my house was not yet restored. My career is in helping those less fortunate and I and my co-workers were all working full time while none of us had power. Then my power came on after 5 days of no electricity and little sleep. I noticed that my neighbors did not have power when I did and I felt a deep guilt and empathy for them. I realized that it was survivor guilty. I even thought about hiding that my power was restored.

    Sever people told me I shouldn’t feel this way, but I did. I teach emotional honesty to my clients so I held firm.I know my feelings and they are valid. I was validated by some understanding friends who also have survivor guilt following major hurricanes. I have reached out and connected with friends and good listening colleagues.

    My life is beginning to get n=back to normal. My routines are beginning to reshape. I feel like I have been in some altered state for 2 weeks now. Your blog has helped me personally and will also be a great help to my clients who have similar feelings. Thank you for writing this and publishing it. It is serving for great comfort in this difficult time.

  62. someone  September 2, 2017 at 1:12 am Reply

    My aunt died because of an accident when she want to pick me up . I told her we should hurry up because I need to go somewhere. I guess she drove really fast and end up got an accident . I still remember I’m waiting for her but lastly I’m the one who went to the hospital and saw her in a white plastic bag and her body covered with blood. My aunt was like my second mother.

  63. Anont  July 24, 2017 at 6:30 am Reply

    I may suffer survivor’s guilt. I am a survivor of domestic violence as a child, however my younger sister committed suicide at 16 and my older sister died of a toxic overdose at 29 after living several years as a drug addict and alcoholic. I am now working in DV but think I may only be doing it to try and save my sisters… which obviously I cant do.

  64. John DeGraw  July 23, 2017 at 7:35 pm Reply

    My oldest daughter Elizabeth died in a car accident. She was only 8 years old. 2012, I literally died 3 times. I was in a medically induced coma and on life support for 2 weeks. I’m alive but why? My little girl didn’t really get the chance to put her mark on life. I gladly would have given up my life for hers. I DON’T understand.

  65. Karen Medel  July 21, 2017 at 12:09 pm Reply

    On June 7 2016 things changed. He wasn’t at work by 830 which was odd but not totally unusual. I sent him a text at 8:38. I know this because I haven’t been able to delete the text. No response. I asked the girls in the office if we should be worried. By 845 with no response and still not at work, I called his wife Kelly; who was visiting family in Montana. She didn’t answer and so I left a message. We said we would wait until 9 and if there was no response we would drive out to the farm to check on him. Kelly called and said he didn’t answer. I asked when was the last time she talked to him. She told me that morning around 730. I told her that Nadia and I were going to drive out to the farm just to make sure everything was ok. She said “call me when you get there.” She then gave me the code to their front door. As Nadia and I got into my car and began driving we were quiet. We got on the freeway and instinctively began looking along the sides both thinking that perhaps he had broken down. As we were heading east we passed the mall on the left and saw an accident. Nadia and I both said together, that looks like his car. We took the 16th St exit and began to head back the other way. The on ramp heading west was closed. We pulled into the ninja sushi parking lot and walked over to the police car that was blocking the freeway on ramp. We told the officer that we believed that was his car and wanted to confirm. She was hesitant and we insisted stating that his wife was out of town and there was no other family except us. The officer checked and confirmed that it was Dave’s car and that he had been taken to the hospital. I called Kelly and told her about the accident; she said “I’m coming home” and hung up. Nadia and I went to the hospital and waited for news. We sat in the family room, waited for the chaplain and prayed. Finally we were allowed to go back but were unable to see him. The nurse asked if we were waiting for him. We answered yes. I told her that his wife was out of town. The nurse told me that she had her on the phone. As we were walking away I heard her say “Kelly this is Yrmc ER calling; David has been in an accident.” Nadia and I then returned to work to let everyone know what was going on. The leadership team was informed. And we waited. We made arrangements for someone to pick up their dogs to take care of them. Kelly called and told me that they were air-vaking him to Phoenix. All they could tell her was that he was in critical condition. So again we waited. A teacher Bonnie, called whose husband was ex chp. She said the accident was really bad. Kelly text me and she was getting on the plane and would land approx 330 in Phoenix. I asked if she needed me to come and she said her son was coming. This was approximately 1230. At approx 215 Bonnie called and said that Dave had died in flight to Phoenix. Becky, a board member called and said she was getting calls that he had died. I spent the next hours knowing he was dead but not being able to tell Kelly. What if I was wrong. What if they were able to revive him. So again we waited. In my head I was figuring the timeframe. If she lands at 330 and takes 30 minutes to get luggage that takes her to 4. Figure 20-30 minutes to get out of airport-that’s 430. Google how far airport is to hospital-10 mins. That’s 440. By 515 she will know what I already know. At 345 she text me they had landed and were on the way to the hospital. I prayed that Bonnie’s husband was wrong. I prayed that Kelly would arrive and he would be alive. I prayed for strength for Kelly. By 530 the board members had arrived. No announcement would be made until we had received confirmation from the family. We were all still holding onto hope. At 550 I left the office. At 555 Kelly called me. She didn’t make it in time. He died in flight. “I didn’t get to say goodbye Karen. They let me hold his hand. I’m coming home. I need my dogs there when I get home. I didn’t get to say goodbye. I need my dogs. The keyless code is 2007 our anniversary. I need my dogs.” I promised her they would be there. I hung up and turned around to give the news to Kish and the board. He was gone.

    Dave made the decision, I know in my heart, to go to God. He knew that his injuries were so bad that he would never be able to be back to the Dave Kelly loved. She would spend the rest of her life, willingly, taking care of him. He made the choice that he could not let that happen – he loved her too much.

  66. Deborah  July 11, 2017 at 10:08 am Reply

    My daughter was stillborn on May 8th, her due date. My guilt is insurmountable. Three weeks prior I felt less movement but my husband convinced me that everything was fine. I convinced myself that my baby was fine. I didn’t seek medical attention and now blame myself for her death.

    • Karen  July 21, 2017 at 12:04 pm Reply

      Deborah – I am so sorry for your loss. Please know that you are not alone and although that does not help the pain you feel, the healing can be found in the support of others who have experienced the same loss. Please consider attending a retreat with other women who have lost their children. I am the coordinator for a retreat that helps women heal from abortion, miscarriage and stillborn. I find comfort in knowing that my children that I lost are in heaven waiting for me when God calls me home.

  67. No one  June 22, 2017 at 9:26 am Reply

    My daughter, sober at the time and in a recovery program,obtained drugs for her brother, my son, on her own birthday, and he died from them Tragic. No her guilt is insurmountable. No counseling has helped her. They were best friends,she and her brother and to have him die on her birthday and because she supplied the drugs is too much for her. No,no one blames her. We have told her this many times, just can’t convince her. Counselors have told her the same. Advice? This occurred 14 months ago.

  68. Joyce  May 13, 2017 at 12:11 pm Reply

    In July 2009 my mother was diagnosed with Colon cancer and started her journey of operations and chemotherapy. In January 2010, six months later, I was diagnosed with Breast cancer, which included operations, chemotherapy and radiation. We both went to the same cancer clinic, and unknown to them, as I am married and have a different last name, ended up with the same oncologist as well. So we would go to each others appointments together and they would set up our treatments for the same day. I felt very blessed that I could hold my mom’s hand and she could hold mine as we went thru this journey together of the same experiences with treatment and our body changes
    In November 2011 the cancer took my mother, In April 2012, I was” released” from the cancer clinic, cancer free. I remember my doctor saying “your released and you don’t have to come back for any appointments”. As I was walking out of the hospital that day I remember thinking, wow “released”, what a great day!! Then it hit me, before I reach the main doors, here I am walking out of the hospital because I’m “released”, but my mom didn’t. She was released in a very different way, she didn’t get to walk out. I could not and still can’t let go of the word “released”. Why have I gotten to live and she didn’t?
    As time went on I fell into the routine of life again, but there always seemed to be something missing or not quiet right. I started to get anxiety and panic attacks, which I had never had before. I tried positive self help avenues, but was never really able to find that positive emotion. I thought it was the chemo medicines that had changed my brain pathways somehow. It has taken 5 years, just this week, with the help of counseling, for me to realize that I may be suffering from Survivor Guilt. I, unconsciously, do not allow myself to be happy and enjoy the second chance at life I have been given. Just when I think I’m happy about something it’s like a trigger somewhere in my subconscious says “nope, you can’t be happy if your mom isn’t here to enjoy this too”.
    I know my mother would never have wanted me to go thru life feeling this way as she was a very positive person. If she were here today she would say “don’t be silly, you have so many happy memories to still make with your husband, children and future grandchildren. Find the happiness that each day holds and enjoy the second chance you’ve been given!”,
    Thank you for this website, it is the first step in my journey of understanding and being able to accept that “I am worthy of this second chance at life”

    • Litsa Williams  May 13, 2017 at 4:51 pm Reply

      Joyce – wishing you some comfort in those memories of your mom this mother’s day weekend. In a group we run at a local homeless shelter someone said something that really struck me this week. She said, I think it’s important to remind yourself “you can have a good life, even after your good life”. She described how wonderful her life was before some devastating losses and how hard it was to imagine it could every be good of happy again. Now she reminders herself of the beauty of the “good life” she had before her losses, and of the “good life” she wants to live now. I share with you because you are absolutely worthy of not only a second chance, but also “a good life after your good life” with your mom. I hope you find support on our site!

  69. Marge Harju  May 9, 2017 at 8:29 am Reply

    My husband died suddenly of a heart attack over 2 years ago. I’m still struggling with, I believe, survivors guilt. I should have insisted on driving him to the hospital when he had indigestion/heart burn symtoms. He had recently had tests done by one of those clinics that check all kinds of things, like cholesterol, diabetes, heart function, etc. I wasn’t with him when it was done, so I’m not exactly sure what he had checked. His father died at age 52 from a heart attack so he was very aware of anything that didn’t feel right and tried to keep on top of his health. He had been hunting in very cold weather and when he got home he complained of having indigestion and asked for some over the counter drugs to ease his discomfort. Once he took some, he felt better for a while and continued his normal routine. This went on for 2 days and on the last night, he complained again about his chest hurting and indigestion. I started up the car to get ready to go to the emergency room with him, but again, he took some antacids and he said he felt better and to shut off the car. The next morning I woke up to find him complaining again of the pain. I told him we were going to the emergency room and I started to get ready. He said ok, but he was going to lie down for a bit first. He gave me a big hug and laid down in bed. I heard him snoring in just a few minutes and I laughed to myself that I really need to record that noise so he can hear himself! After watching him a short time, he stopped snoring and stopped breathing. I shook him, trying to wake him up and he wouldn’t wake up!! I went into shock but was able to call 911. They tried to guide me into giving him CPR. I should have put him on the floor and tried giving him chest compressions, but I just couldn’t think. I also should have called my sister-in-law who lived 2 miles away and is an emergency responder, but I didn’t remember that. By the time I did call her, she said it was too late. The ambulance arrived about 30 minutes after I called 911. I just feel so guilty that I didn’t get him into the emergency room as soon as he mentioned his chest pain the few days before. It just didn’t even cross my mind that he could be having a heart attack, mostly because he had so recently had the tests done. Also, because, I trusted him to take care of himself and he trusted me to take care of myself because we wanted to live a long time together. When I saw him in his casket I just wanted to crawl right into it with him. I don’t know how to move on. I’ve been keeping busy dealing with everything he had, but I know at some point, I need to figure out the rest of my life. Thanks for having this site for me to write all this down. Maybe now I can get a better grip.

    • Apryl  February 9, 2019 at 11:35 pm Reply

      I’m so sorry for your loss.

  70. Dee  January 16, 2017 at 3:31 pm Reply

    Thank-you so much for this article. I was hoping to find some insight into something I strongly feel is connected to a particular type of survivor’s guilt that comes when someone else dies saving your life. Being a big fan of Sherlock, I watched the latest episodes and they had a rather personal flavour to them. My husband died so that I could live…although it wasn’t this them in the new series that set me off, but something Sherlock said in the aftermath, “In saving my life she conferred a value upon it. It is a currency I do not know how to spend.” This hit the nail on the head for me and the themes of what I’ve personally been exploring on why I just haven’t been able to move forward.
    I think it is really important to acknowledge that when another human being values your life above their own, it is not just survivor guilt but a deeper contemplation in understanding how little value we place upon ourselves.
    You think, how could you possibly think I am more valuable in this world than you? How am I to live in the face of this high value you’ve conferred upon me? I am nothing, yet you’ve made me into everything. How on earth do I be that? Live that? Do that?
    I don’t really have an answer to this other than what I’ve already been doing. Live life as fully as possible, achieve the things you set out to do to the best of your ability, cultivate joy in every living breathing moment and honour their gift to you in the best ways you know how.
    I think for the moment, that just receiving the revelation that the self-saboteur which has been lurking within has been fuelled by this thought is enough to move forward, but I think this is where many of us need a forum for thoughts…
    I have such deep reverence for what my husband did for me, but no idea how to live this gift.

  71. Lisa Winslow  December 29, 2016 at 2:05 am Reply

    On 1/24/14 my older sister, my only sibling was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) After 5 months in the Hosp and fighting the beast, horrible chemo, and several very close calls with death… she was sent home. She was told our was gone, she had won the battle. Then a few short months later it was back. At that point here only hope was a stem cell transplant… I had been living in the American Cancer Society facility with her… As her full time care giver for awhile. I was the only 100% match for her… the next closest was 91%. Of course I fully agreed to whatever was needed to save her life. On May 26th we did the stem cell transplant… My body made 3-4 times the stem cells she needed.. and they gave all of them to her! She really started improving… After a short recovery period my sisters counts began going up! We had to stay an additional 100 days post transplant at the ACS LODGE in Kansas City… This whole time neither of us were with our children, or for me my husband… But all agreed we were where we needed to be to save my sisters life! So day 100 comes, and she is cleared to go home!! We pack up 10 months worth of items in my Pilot, and I took her to her home… Then I drove 3 states back to my husband, daughters, and grandchildren! All was good for six weeks… Then wee for the news that the beast was back! So back I went to KC, back she went to KC, and again we settled into the ACS Lodge… The only hope at this time was a round of chemo, and a transplant of my lymphocytes… Again I was the closest and best match that she had. We did the lymphocyte transplant on 12/19/15…my sister finally left the hospital in April of 2015… after we were told that AML tumors had formed in her esophagus, and the top chamber of her right lung. So then I went back to her, and was there to hold her hand and tell her I was so sorry that my stem cells, and lymphocytes didn’t work, I was there to tell her I would take care of her son, and granddaughter, and our mom. I was there to tell her it was ok to let go. I have been lost and devastated since May 21, 2016. I have been overwhelmed with taking care of arrangements, comforting her son, connecting with her granddaughter, and now helping care for our mom…. all whole trying to get my get back under me and reconnect with my family who I basically left for 11 months! (Although they were very loving and supportive) However, I have been told that I am suffering from survivors guilt… but haven’t been told what to do… This article made me see that others do go through this…. I just don’t know anyone else who has been where I am. It sucks, and sadly see no end in sight!

  72. I want to die  December 16, 2016 at 8:02 am Reply

    I feel guilty bc I should of killed myself a long time ago

    1
    • Litsa  December 16, 2016 at 8:30 am Reply

      If you are considering hurting yourself please seek help right away! You can walk into any emergency room or call 911 (if you are in the US). You can also call the suicide hotline in the US at 18002738255 or in the UK at 44 (0) 8457 90 90 90. If you are elsewhere just google suicide hotline and your country name. Feeling hopeless after a death us common, but with time and support I promise you will find ways to cope. Many on this site have been exactly where you are, feeling there is no hope. Somehow though,people manage to move forward- one day at a time. If you are experiencing survivor guilt that is contributing to your thoughts of suicide, please know it’s common for people who are grieving to try and make sense of the senseless by asking “why?” or by trying to make sense of the death by placing blame and responsibility. Unfortunately, this often leads to a sense of self-blame and the feeling that, in one way or another, we should be punished or do penance for our actions, whatever they may have been, that led up to a loved one’s death. I understand that you may not agree with me right now, however I feel that I can say without a doubt that you dying will in no way make up for any guilt you may be feeling. It will not help the death to make any more sense, it will not change anything, and it will only be a second terrible tragedy. Please reach out to one of the resources above right away. We do our best to monitor comments and emails quickly, but please remember 911, and ER, or a suicide hotline will be the quickest and most direct way to get help.

    • Al nov  February 13, 2018 at 12:28 am Reply

      I understand your comment. Truth is that Fate is using you to hurt others and there is nothing you can do about it. Accept it, give in to your calling and and be the best demon you can be. Your not alone. Good hunting!

  73. I have cancer  December 16, 2016 at 8:01 am Reply

    I feel guilty b

    • Litsa  December 16, 2016 at 8:34 am Reply

      I am so sorry you are coping with cancer and feeling guilt. We have some other posts on guilt that may be helpful. You may wish to read this post on guilt vs regret and this post on self-forgiveness.

  74. Kirsty  July 3, 2016 at 6:46 pm Reply

    I am finally learning to deal with my survivor guilt after being attacked with my sister when I was 6. Intellectually I knew about it but emotionally I was stuck. It had stopped me from enjoying intimacy with my husband for 18 years. And also made me a crazy anxious mother. I haven’t been able to turn off my amygdula for years. I am working on it now and it’s hard work. I think I am getting better. I allow my self to grieve and my husband and my psychologist are my witnesses and acknowledge my grief that was trivialised and ignored and repressed when I was a child (I repressed it to protect myself). I am able to love my husband and children much better. I am still amazed that just one terrible moment can affect you so completely. Although neither of my parents had the capacity to nurture us which also compounds the issue.

  75. Chelsea  March 24, 2016 at 12:37 am Reply

    This is something I still struggle with even after all these years. My BFF Matthew was born with Congenital Heart Disease, so was I… yet here I am 22 yrs old, a university student and future teacher stronger and healthier than ever and he died a long time ago when we were still kids. What’s more, I wasn’t there for him, I couldn’t visit him in the hospital or say goodbye or tell him how much I love him and I know that the circumstances surrounding that were beyond my control, but even so I’ve always felt like I really let him down and that a real friend wouldn’t have let anything stand in her way. I also sometimes wish I was the one who got sick that summer instead of him. Not that I wanted to die, but I knew even then that I was in a somewhat better position to survive what he did not so I wish I could’ve taken his place.

  76. Manette  January 21, 2016 at 10:42 pm Reply

    I survived a 4 wheeler accident when I was 10 but my friend died. We were actually trapped under the 4 wheeler together for a while but she was unconscious. My parents tried to get me to go to counseling but I’d already picked up the mentality that “someone else has it worse”. Still trying to sort through everything 15 years later. This article was very helpful, so thank you.

  77. Anonymous  January 20, 2016 at 9:26 pm Reply

    Any suggestions on how I can help a loved one deal with his survivor guilt that he’s been carrying around for many, many years. He punishes himself by not allowing himself to really live life.

  78. Vicki  January 4, 2016 at 2:35 pm Reply

    I think Richard, my daughter’s godfather, has this although he disagrees because he thinks survivor’s guilt stops you from living your life. I don’t think it means that.
    He saw both his sergeants die in combat on the same day, almost simultaneously and what he saw was hostile. He calls the one sergeant his “Nam brother.” His blood-related sibling didn’t understand that and Richard refused to enlighten him. The conversation started when Robert, his brother because of DNA, said “I don’t think you should have feelings of the same intensity for this Bill character as you do me. I’m your brother, you should care about me more than him.”
    Richard replied “Bill was my Nam brother,” which displeased Robert and he asked “what’s that mean?” Richard said never mind because he didn’t want to argue with his brother, who appears to like the activity. Or one would get the impression he does because he’s always in verbal conflict with someone.
    Richard refuses to discuss anything that happened to him in the war so I have no idea how he processes what he saw or went through, although I’m starting to understand why he doesn’t talk about the war; if people in his age range are so hostilely against the war, and some of them act as if they hate the people who were sent there, it would make me not want to discuss it either.
    He has the most open heart I’ve ever seen; his 15 y.o daughter is like him but less controlled about it than he is. I trust him completely with my daughter. I can’t figure out why some people in his age group act so strange about it when they find out he’s a veteran of that war. Sometimes it actually upsets me that they seem to be so judgmental about it. I don’t think the way some people act about it could possibly make it easier to deal with survivor’s guilt.

  79. Anonymous  December 4, 2015 at 1:58 pm Reply

    My boyfriend and I broke up as his depression and alcohol abuse worsened. I ended the relationship to protect myself. Months later, he ended his life. I never imagined that one of us might not survive it. I feel horrible that I wasn’t there for him at his worst. Working through this grief and regret has been immeasurably hard and seems endless.

  80. Kathy  November 6, 2015 at 1:17 pm Reply

    I lost my sister February 25,2015 and my 34 yrs old son April 1, 2015. 37 days apart. My son left three young sons behind and his wife. It’s not a natural order to lay a child to rest. 7 months have passed and there are days my tears come….keep coming…no option. Unbelieveable anguish. Its only natural that I go first. I feel fractured. Broke. There are many things to be thankful for. But, my struggle is vast. I must seek my Lord. There I will find comfort. True test of my faith.

  81. Moe  November 6, 2015 at 12:21 pm Reply

    My aunt was killed 9-29-2015 at 7:30am on a Tuesday, stabbed to death in her front yard why neighbors and passers-by watch. My aunt lived in fear for many years this man made her life a living hell, but she only told us what she wanted us to know. We all feel guilty bc we should have seen the signs she drank everyday and seemed anxious all the time. As we cleaned her house after the funeral I found all types of depression meds and letters, this broke my heart bc my aunt lived a nightmare. The man stalked her, bear her, threaten her until she said enough is enough and then he took her life. The neighborhood failed us and law enforcement failed us this man had so many criminal charges against him but was still allowed his freedom.

  82. Jetta K. Luciano  November 3, 2015 at 1:27 pm Reply

    Today (November 3rd, 2015) would have been my brother, my only sibling’s, 53rd birthday AND my parent’s 54th Anniversary (yes, he was born at exactly 6:08pm on my parent’s 1st. Anniversary at exactly the same minute a year later than they had said their vows at 6:08pm 11/3/61) and I will turn 52 exactly 2 weeks from today which made me exactly two weeks and 1 year younger than him…I was expected to be born on their 2nd Anniversary and was always informed that I was the “rebel” even then as I held out for two weeks so as to have “my own” birthday….on 11/17/63. My other and I are now alone, having lost my father to Lung Cancer two weeks before his 74th birthday, 07/14/8, and then losing Mike, my brother very unexpectedly and suddenly from a “Sudden Cardiac Death” 9 days after my Mother’s last birthday (02/26/15) after he came home from work and laid down for a nap. That evening, when I got home from work I was sitting on the couch with our three dogs, mother was making dinner and my cell phone rang from my brother’s cell phone, but when I answered it, it was not him, or my sister-In-Law…it was her sister, who told me that Mike had a heart attack, and the next words that I will NEVER forget “…and it doesn’t look good”… I did not know he was already dead…I tried to stop my panic, but I told my mother and called my Aunt Barbara, who came and got us to drive to their house, thinking we would follow to the hospital, so before she got there, I called again to see if he was gone in the ambulance, but one of her brother’s answered the phone and said “nah, he didn’t make it”… I felt as if my heart stopped with his….Time has gone on, it’s been over 8 months now…I am trying to make sense of the inevitable “WHY”…him, not me? He had never even really been sick, never had a surgery in his life…loved life… loved his wife, his mother, his children and grandchildren, me…(I hope)… and I loved him so very much! Do I have “Survivor’s Guilt”… oh Yes…but I am trying to move on…mostly I just get through the days, but the “First Year” is HELL! Never today, Happy Birthday to the Greatest Brother in the World!!!! I miss you! Michael K. Lewis…11/03/62 – 02/6/15. Until I see you again…and to my Father also… Paul K. Lewis… 07/28/34 – 07/14/08.

    • Litsa  November 4, 2015 at 11:03 pm Reply

      Oh Jetta, I am so sorry for all you have been through. It sounds like your brother was truly an amazing man, and clearly you are keeping that memory alive. I wish I had answers for the ‘why’ but of course I don’t. I have had similar thoughts myself many times in my own grief and the only words of wisdom I can offer are that when there is no answer sometimes you have to embrace the idea of creating your own ‘why’ – deciding what you can and will do to create meaning. I hope you find some support on this site and ideas for coping.

  83. Angela Tucker  November 2, 2015 at 10:20 pm Reply

    I have a serious case of survivor’s guilt. My youngest son was murdered at age 24. I know all parents that lose a child, no matter what the circumstances, must feel this way. It goes against the natural order of things. Your not supposed to outlive your child.

    • Litsa  November 4, 2015 at 11:06 pm Reply

      Angela, I of course can’t even begin to imagine what you have been through. I hope you find some support and ideas for coping here. Sending good thoughts . . .

  84. Deanna Clark Willingham  November 2, 2015 at 9:02 pm Reply

    i also suffer from survivor guilt, although my husband was ill for years. I think that if I had just recognized the symtoms a little sooner, argued a little more with the Dr. or something, he woud still be with us. That said, he was ready to go and had quit taking some meds and hid some other things from me. While I grieve I also had to respect his wishes after over 30 years of declining health.
    I appreciate this blog so much, I have learned so much here.

    • Litsa  November 4, 2015 at 11:10 pm Reply

      Deanna, I am so sorry for all you have been through – not just his death, but the years of illness and declining health, which themselves can take a toll. I am so glad you found our site and have found it helpful.

      • Lisa  August 20, 2016 at 2:21 pm

        Hi I have survivors guilt and just didn’t pay attention to the diagnosis..My husband of 18 yrs been together for a total of 24 yrs died from cancer….I realize it has affected every aspect of my life and my loved ones..

  85. Kelly  November 2, 2015 at 12:16 pm Reply

    For me, survivor’s guilt had to do with feeling that somehow I benefited from my loved ones’ passing. When my husband passed away, I started to receive a small annuity from his job. When my mom passed, I paid her boyfriend money I used to give my mom every month for a little over a year because I didn’t want to feel like something got easier for me because she was gone. My parents and husband did so much for me, gave me everything and I just feel so grateful to them, and at the same time so, I don’t know, like I’m here and they aren’t when I wouldn’t have had too much of anything without all that they have done for me. It’s hard not to even be able to let them know that. This might be a slightly different take on survivor’s guilt and that is why I posted because I wondered if anybody else has experienced this. I have also experienced the more typical, perhaps, survivor’s guilt , as well. When my husband died of cancer, I often wondered…he was only 52 and it made me feel so badly for him that his life was cut short. I had feelings of why him? Why not me? Feelings of it not being fair that died and will miss so many things that were yet to be experienced, especially with our children. Sometimes, at family gatherings with our kids, I feel guilty because I am experiencing all the things I know he would want to be a part of but can’t. I just feel like I ended up with everything and he ended up with so little.

  86. Sharon peake  November 2, 2015 at 10:33 am Reply

    My husband got type 1 diabetes in 2001 as a result of autoimmune disease. I had to constantly remind him to check his blood and take his insulin or help him when his sugar levels dropped. He would get mad at me a lot, reminding me I’m not his mother, etc. 2 years ago we went camping, he apparently didn’t take any insulin for several days and died the day after we returned while I was at work. I still blame myself for letting my guard down, not paying attention to his health. I know it’s not my fault, but if only I had been a little more vigilant, or hadn’t gone to work that day… Maybe he’d still be here. I understand the Survivor Guilt. It sucks.

  87. Lisa Bogatin  November 2, 2015 at 8:50 am Reply

    Thank you so much for this well organized breakdown of Survivors Guilt.
    We see a lot of this in questions to our “Ask Dr. Niemeyer” column. I will forward this on to those it can help. Bravo! Lisa

    1

Leave a Comment

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.