PTSD, Guilt: Reasons for Survivors Taking Their Lives

Analyst Nikki Kontz said the main causes of the recent suicides can range between (PTSD) and survivor’s guilt.

Nikki Kontz, Arizona Suicide Prevention Coalition analyst, talks about PTSD and survivors’ guilt.

(Photo: AP)

Two survivors of the Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and a parent who lost his child to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have taken their lives within the last week.

The incidents of people taking their lives follows the first anniversary of the Parkland shooting.

Arizona Suicide Prevention Coalition analyst Nikki Kontz has said that the main causes of the recent suicides can range between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and survivor’s guilt.

There have been multiple occasions where the survivors of a deadly attack have taken their own lives.

Analyst Nikki Kontz said:

“The reality of it is, every survivor, whether it be a parent or a child, they all experience different things and as they start to live life now, they all experience things differently.”

Kontz says that the trauma associated with PTSD and also the “survivor’s guilt” of being “left behind” is something that constantly plays on the minds of the survivors. Even the parents who have lost their children, and work towards reforms with the help of organisations, struggle to deal with the actual incident.

The US has had over 150 casualties in mass shootings since 2012 and a lack of reforms can also be hurtful for the survivors. Kontz added that for some of the students and children who have been part of the shooting in some way or the other have trouble dealing with PTSD if they see that not much has been done to improve the situation regarding gun reforms.