Murder of Relatives or Friends

Strategies to protect yourself

There are things you can do and that will help you cope and overcome the death of someone close:

- Talk to someone you trust. Letting everything out through talking, crying or just being around someone who is available to comfort, listen and support you will help more than you can imagine.
- You can talk or vent with a person who is experiencing the same loss... the other person will understand more easily what you are going through and you will feel less lonely.
- However, you may not feel comfortable talking about what happened to those closest (e.g. because they are also suffering from the death of your relative or friend). If this is the case, you can talk to professionals instead.
        - If there’s a psychologist/ counselor available in your school, you can talk to him/her about what happened. He/She can advise and support you and may even recommend a specialist who can help you.
          - If you are having physical symptoms that start to interfere with your normal functioning you should go to your family doctor (e.g., sleeping poorly or not sleeping at all). He/she can help take care of those symptoms with the most appropriate treatment according to your problem and age.

- You can also contact Victim Support Scotland. Victim Support Scotland provides support, free of charge and confidential, to all victims of crime, their families and friends.

  

Separador

- Accept your feelings. Do not rush or try to pretend that you are ok. Each person deals with the death of someone close in their own way, and the reactions can be very different. All reactions are natural.  Search on How does it affect the victim’s relatives and friends? for more information.
- Remember the good moments that you shared with the person who died. Attending his/her funeral is a way of celebrating his/her life, a chance to comfort those closest and start the process of letting go. Visiting the place where the victim is buried is also a way to remember his/her life.
- Take care of yourself. Try to rest, sleep and eat well. Do some sport or exercise.  These little things are a starting point for you to feel a little better.
- Find ways of thinking about other stuff. Do not be ashamed to ask for help from your friends to distract you. Most likely want to help (sometimes friends avoid talking to you about what happened because they don’t know what to say or they are afraid of hurting you even more). Arrange an activity to do together (or ask them to think of something to do together).