Episode 50

Alex Anderson - Can good ever come from tragedy?

"I think about him all the time really. But it's not every minute of every day, it's not every hour every day."

Key takeaways from this podcast

  1. The perspective surrounding grief will evolve with time. Alex describes a hand in front of his face in the early stages of grief that slowly moves away allowing his perspective to change with time. The hand always remains there, but the picture around it fills up the space more with time.
  2. Don't harbour guilt. We hear from Alex how It can be a companion in the background but needn't be in the foreground if you lose someone close to you to suicide.

Alex lost his younger brother, Will, to suicide in February 2021. One of four brothers, Will had a wonderful twinkling megawatt smile who loved his role as a primary school music teacher. But struggling with his mental health on the inside, his struggles were made worse by the restrictions of lockdown.

It has taken Alex until recently to be able to speak about Will and his loss, but in this conversation he describes how the family have learnt more about the positive impact Will had on his pupils in life. Reflecting on his own grieving process, Alex describes how he now finds focus and perspective on the things that really matter in life much easier now. Although this makes life much healthier today for Alex it drives guilt in him. Alex says it honours his memory, celebrates the positives strengths Will had and he sees that as something good to come from his grief and how the family remember Will.

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Speaking of Suicide hosting is supported by D and D Paving Ltd.

Speaking of Suicide is produced and presented by Adventurous Audio

About the Podcast

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Speaking of Suicide
Speaking of Suicide is a series of frank, thought provoking and tough conversations about men and mental health.

About your host

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Adventurous Audio

The creative partnership behind Adventurous Audio is Pennie Latin Stuart and Dan Holland. We worked together as a team at the BBC for years—45 between us—producing an insane range of content, covering every conceivable topic from comedy to hard-hitting documentaries, food, the arts, science, music, sport and outside broadcasts, for just about every audio corner of the BBC - BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland, Radio 4, Radio 3 and Radio 2.