Kristi Hugstad is on a mission to abolish the stigma of mental illness and suicide, and that starts with teens. Kristi’s husband, Bill, completed suicide by running in front of a train after struggling for decades with clinical depression and substance abuse. Their story may have ended differently if they’d known the warning signs and risk factors of depression and suicide, and today Kristi is determined to raise awareness of both, so no one is ever too late to save a loved one. Kristi Hugstad is the author of Beneath the Surface: A Teen’s Guide to Reaching Out When You or a Friend Is in Crisis; What I Wish I’d Known: Finding Your Way through the Tunnel of Grief; R U OK?: Teen Depression and Suicide; and a trilogy of gift books, Returning to Joy: Inspiration for Grieving the Loss of a Loved One, Returning to Joy: Inspiration for Grieving the Loss of Your Dog, and Returning to Joy: Inspiration for Grieving the Loss of Your Cat. She is also a professional speaker, certified grief recovery specialist, grief and loss facilitator for addicts in recovery, and credentialed health educator. Kristi hosts The Grief Girl podcast and The Grief Girl OC Talk Radio show, and she is a longtime blogger for the Huffington Post and Elephant Journal.
