Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. Often, the pain of loss can feel overwhelming. You may experience a range of complex and unexpected emotions, including shock, anger, disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness.

Eight years ago, my world shattered. My fiancé, Olivier, died by suicide just weeks before our wedding. We were living together in France, far from English-speaking support services, and left in grief, shock, and isolation. Losing someone to suicide is unlike any other kind of loss. It leaves you with unanswered questions, deep pain, and often an unbearable silence from the world around you.

Author Dr. Saba Riaz will explore how trauma and emotional stress from early life experiences can disrupt the neurochemical balance in the brain. According to Dr. Riaz, “Addiction strongly affects neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin that regulate mood, reward, and impulse control. Chronic stress and trauma cause changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis that create a biochemical environment that increases the probability of addiction.”