Navigating Life After Suicide: 4 Steps to Reclaim Your Life After Loss

Most of us don't realize how deeply grief can reshape our identity. When someone we love dies by suicide, we often unconsciously believe that staying broken honors them—that abandoning our joy, our hobbies, our future is some kind of loyalty. But here's the hard truth: that's not honoring them. That's joining them in death.

In this raw and unflinching episode, therapist and suicide loss survivor Alison Lager pulls back the curtain on the invisible second death—the one that happens to survivors. Drawing from her own devastating experience losing her husband to suicide, neuroscience, spiritual wisdom, and years of clinical practice, Alison shares the actionable blueprint she used to refuse suicide a second victim.

You'll discover:

• Why "secondary loss" happens—and how your abandoned dreams become collateral damage to grief
• The dangerous comfort of the "victim" identity—and why you have to eventually let it go to survive
• The "boardwalk principle": How to reclaim the places and activities you loved without betraying your loved one
• Why staying in grief is a form of spiritual death—and how to recognize when you're joining the same darkness that took them
• The science of "gaining more than you lost"—the neuroscience behind why this actually works
• How to ride waves of grief instead of drowning in one long emotional response
• The "heavier weights" metaphor: Why your pain can become your greatest strength
• Practical strategies for processing rage, anger, and the emotions grief tries to hide
• Why living fully is the ultimate honor to those we've lost—not a betrayal

This episode is for anyone grieving the loss of a loved one to suicide, anyone supporting a widow or survivor, and anyone who's ever wondered if there's a way out of the darkness. If you've felt like staying sad is loyalty, or believed that you can never be happy again—this conversation will change everything.

Because here's what Alison knows: Suicide didn't just take their life. It's trying to take yours too. And you have the power to say no.

🎧 Subscribe now for life-changing conversations on grief, resilience, and transformation
💬 Share your biggest takeaway in the comments—what's one thing you're reclaiming?
📤 Send this to someone who needs to hear: You are not a victim. You will survive this.

Connect with Alison:

• Instagram: @alisonanswers | @lagercounseling
• Website: LagerCounseling.com
• YouTube: Alison Answers
• Facebook: Alison Lager Lcsw Casac
• Purchase Alison’s book: “The Wake Up Call”
• Alison Answers Facebook Group: Join HERE
• Women of Excellence FB group: Join HERE

⚠️ Crisis Resources:
Lager Counseling Services
Call: 516-221-2123
Text: (914) 363-0381
Wantagh: 3408 Park Ave. Wantagh, NY 11793

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (24/7, free, confidential)
Call or text 988 | Visit 988lifeline.org