Melissa Etheridge Shares How She Overcame Grief After Losing Her 21-Year-Old Son
Trigger Warning: This article contains mention of death and substance abuse.
Melissa Etheridge understood the power of “eternity” while grieving her son!
The 63-year-old Grammy-winning singer had a tough time after her son’s sudden demise at the fragile age of 21 due to an opioid overdose in 2020. But she has learned to pull herself out of the cycles of “grief, guilt and blame” and be kinder to herself over the years.
Melissa Etheridge reveals how she dealt with grief
The singer spoke to People about her docuseries Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken, in which she puts on a rocking show for the women at the Topeka Correctional Facility that caters to people with substance abuse issues.
The subject hits close to home for Etheridge, who herself suffered the same pain and lost her 21-year-old son, Beckett, to it. “I learned to understand more about eternity. And how we are eternal beings, and how I truly believe in that,” she said, recollecting the learnings from the loss of her child.
Etheridge said she had to believe in spirituality and eternity to bear her son’s death or any death for that matter. “And to really believe in that is comfort. And to understand that we’re spiritual beings who are having a human experience,” she added.
The Come to My Window singer says she used self-love as an anchor to prevent herself from getting stuck “in a cycle of grief and blame, and shame, and stuff that comes along” and feels a sense of relief knowing that human life is futile and everyone is going to die someday.
Etheridge preaches self-love to overcome guilt
Losing a loved one is hard, but losing someone to substance abuse can “destroy families,” says Etheridge. “It’s just so hard on a family because there’s so much shame and guilt, and they don’t know what to do,” she said.
Dealing with a substance abuse victim is a vulnerable and helpless feeling because you can’t help them. They have to help themselves. “And then sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, the answer is to check out. That’s where they go. And the guilt is never answered,” she added.
But the Into The Dark singer believes self-love is the only way to get through that feeling. One must believe that the loved one they lost would not want them to take on the guilt and pain.
She talked about often sensing her son’s aura around, which is “comforting” to her. “There’ll be times I’ll be doing something, all of a sudden I’ll find myself just thinking about him, and I’m like, ‘Oh.’ His energy comes into that thought form,” she added.
The docuseries Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken will be released on Paramount+ on July 9, 2024
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