Jillian’s Sibling Loss Story: Unresolved Issues, Family Conflict, and the Loss of a Sibling to Suicide

In this episode, of The Broken Pack: Stories of Adult Sibling Loss, surviving sibling Jillian Prouse, a mother and a teacher, shared her personal journey of grief and loss, highlighting the weight of unspoken words, the impact of suicide, and the need for support. Jillian discusses losing her brother, Brandon to suicide less than a year ago.  Her heartbreak and grief have been complicated by challenging family situations and her own pregnancy loss.

• Jillian emphasizes the importance of empathy, understanding, and seeking help for those navigating this difficult experience of sibling loss.
• She shares how her grief for Brandon has been complicated and delayed due to multiple other primary and secondary losses as well as difficult circumstances that occurred prior to his death.
• Jillian’s experience with suicide loss and sibling loss highlights the unique challenges of grieving the loss of a sibling to suicide including a gamut of emotional experiences.

Content Warning: Information presented in this episode may be upsetting to some people. It contains talk of suicide.

If you are in the US and would like support for yourself or someone else with substance use, suicidal thoughts, or other topics discussed in this episode, please call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or Text your 5-digit ZIP Code to 435748 (HELP4U) or call a warmline. For more immediate crisis call 911, 988, or go to the nearest emergency room.

If you believe you are witnessing an overdose, call 911 or your country’s emergency number immediately even if you are administering Narcan.

In the USA an updated directory of warmlines by state can be found at https://warmline.org/warmdir.html

A warmline directory for trained peer supports in over 20 countries can be found at https://www.supportiv.com/tools/international-resources-crisis-and-warmlines (some of these may be hotlines).

Support the show

If you would like more information or to share your own adult sibling loss story, please contact me, Dr. Angela Dean, at contact@thebrokenpack.com or go to our website, thebrokenpack.com.

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Thank you!

Angela M. Dean, PsyD, FT

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