Relato de caso de mãe de filho suicida

Abstract

We present the experience of a mother from the support group for those bereaved by suicide carried out from an extension project of the Psychology course at the State University of Minas Gerais. The group takes place remotely. The case presented is that of a mother who lost her only 32-year-old son, called by her “mô de Mãe”. Catarina, fictitious name, arrives at the group desolate after 5 months of the loss of her only son who killed himself while she was travelling. She raised her son alone after separating when he was 9 months old. The two had a very strong love relationship, shared the simple day-to-day tasks in a fun way “while I made the coffee, he set the table”, “while he made the pastry dough, 'he loved those moments ’, I made the sauce.” She knew that he was going through depression and reports that he said he would die after her death so as not to make her suffer. The group is mixed, people who lost someone to suicide and those who survived the attempts. The contact with the pain of those who want to kill themselves helps this mother to reframe her pain. At first, her contact was with the loss of her son and the depression she experienced. Afterwards, after listening to survivors of attempts, Catarina begins to make contact with her son, in addition to the suicide. On his birthday we make a dynamic so that he introduces us to his son and not the suicide. Between the day of his death and his birthday there was only a month left. This experience helps her to make contact with significant moments in her son's life, with moments of great joy between the two and awakens in her the awareness of a life well lived with her son. For months without leaving the room and without opening the windows, after 9 months in the group, the pain of loss remains, like a wound “in raw flesh”, as she herself calls it. On the other hand, Catarina gradually resumes daily activities, is active in the group in the quest to show those who try to kill themselves the damage they will do to the lives of those who will stay, that there is something they can do to have a meaningful life. He becomes aware that his pain has altered the way some people start to feel in the face of the suffering that made them want to die. Today, she is a person whose contact boundaries have become more permeable to listen to the other's pain and share her own. He managed to build friendships with the group and seeks to organize face-to-face meetings between them, despite being from different states. He has resumed taking care of the place where he used to spend a lot of good times with his son. Thus, in the encounter with the anguish of the other, a process of encounter with oneself has been carried out, openness to the other and, thus, a contribution so that lives, bereaved or empty, become lives with meaning.