The taking of one's own life can seem like an incomprehensible act and to deal with the feelings that arise for survivors, an understanding of how the suicidal person perceives their world, can be helpful.
Friends and family of a person who has suicided are often unable to get past the guilt and denial to understand that their loved one felt the way that they may have described in their farewell note, at that time, not necessarily all of that time. Most suicidal people develop 'tunnel vision' where they become unable to see another way of dealing with their overwhelming pain. They may also have seen themselves as failures in a hopeless situation wherein they are reluctant to ask for help. Often it can be helpful for the survivors to seek out photos and writing from earlier happier times and to focus on these times when remembering. However, it is impossible to predict exactly how a death by suicide will affect the survivors. The relationship with the person will have a strong bearing upon the depth of their grief. Sadly, some survivors never recover. Others become advocates of suicide awareness and prevention or strongly militant against the taboos which surround suicide.
As survivors move through the healing process, they will take pleasure in remembering their loved person lost to suicide, as more than a 'label' but as the complete human being that they were, with all their flaws, hopes and achievements; a celebration of their life, not just a remembrance of the way that they died.