Do what you need to do and take care of yourself. And, just from personal experience, don't read the comments on the stories. It will only hurt your heart worse that it already does.
I think I must have missed something on why the media is involved.
I'm so sorry. The death of a child can rock anyone's world. Be kind to yourself and let yourself grieve. ((HUGS))
Public health had to do an advisory and the media glommed onto it.
People suck. Even with them doing an advisory on it, her name shouldn't have been released. Now of course it's easy to figure out, since only the one child (where there more) got meningitis, but people and media should still be respectful of that.
How awful for her, it especially for her son that he has to go through this, and likely doesn't understand why people are being so nasty.
People are horrible. My good friend was murdered in a high profile case in Austin and the comments on articles were so awful. Infuriating and wrong and hurtful.
I'm so sorry. I don't know the back story but that poor woman.
Have you considered speaking with a therapist? Because I don't feel like not being able to function is the normal, healthy response to the death of someone you admittedly don't even know that well.
I'm kind of here. I can understand being affected by this, but not eating and not sleeping seems beyond the pale.
Yeah. I remember you dealing with a lot of cancer deaths in the past couple of years too. I think you've had a rough go of it lately and talking to someone might help.
11d said this is someone with whom she connects really well. Don't you have friends of friends like that? Someone you get along with really well and are excited to see but don't necessarily chat with weekly? Just because she isn't a close friend doesn't make them almost strangers. Close friend or not, therapy might be a good idea given how it affected her. However, I don't think we need to make her feel like her grief is somehow wrong.
We went through something similar very recently. It was a suicide of a very close family member. I read the media reports and then the comments. Bad idea. People blaming race and all sorts of random things. There were conspiracy theories going around. Blame on the family. I had nightmares for awhile over it but I think I'm finally moving past that part of the grief. The visuals I would get of how it happened and just having been extremely close to that person made things worse. It's still fresh, not even a month but at least the media hype has died down.
Post by mrsukyankee on Dec 11, 2013 12:52:23 GMT -5
As a therapist, I'd say you are in a place where you do need to talk to someone - you sound like you are suffering from PTSD-like symptoms, which can happen in these circumstances. Do seek out help! And hugs!
I'm so sorry, 11d. My heart goes out to this family and those who knew her. The death of a child affects a community so hard. When DD, 14, passed away last October, people we barely knew and some we didn't know at all were sending messages about how it had affected them and their families. So know that what you are feeling can be very normal.
We also had the media to deal with in the very beginning due to the circumstances of her death. They were very polite and nice but it was horrible to say the least. I know at least one article was written but I only saw the printed version. I heard that the online version had some nasty and inappropriate comments attached but I have not and will not see them.
The media very quickly went away after we didn't give them anything to work with. As a family we refused to speak with them. Mainly because of our own emotional state at the time, but also because we didn't want to be saying anything that could hurt us later on and because we were so confused as to where to place blame. The other parties involved also wouldn't give statements for legal reasons. There will be a public inquest starting in the next year or so where we expect the media to pick it up again but we are in a much better place to deal with it now and are actually welcoming it.
11d- ((hugs)) I have read a few news articles about her death. They should not have included her name. I am so sorry you and the family are going through this.