Mental Health: 4 Ways Of Coping With The Tragic Loss Of A Loved One

When you’ve loss of loved one so tragically, the truth is that this is going to affect your mental health in so many more ways than you can even imagine. 

There’s no other way to mask the fact that the tragic loss of a loved one is tough to cope with. No one will ever be prepared for it. For others, they may even start to blame themselves, question the existence of their life, or even find the loss very difficult to come to terms with.

While there’s no right or wrong way to grieve and to heal, there are ways for you to deal with the grieving process better and more healthily. These are some of the means to do so:

1. Allow Yourself To Experience Your Thoughts And Feelings

It’s wrong to feel that you always have to put a brave face in front of your friends and family. Doing this doesn’t heal you. It may cause more pain in your life than you can ever imagine. When you go through these experiences in your life, allow yourself to experience all the thoughts and feelings that are running through your mind.

If you want to cry or shout in anger, then do so. If you find it comforting to spend days looking through photos and videos of memories that you’ve had together, then allow yourself this opportunity. 

The more that you give yourself the chance to go through your thoughts and feelings, the better it is for your mental health. This way, you will enable yourself to take each day one step at a time, which is one of the most important things to do when one tries to heal. You should not be masking anything.

2. Acknowledge Your Pain

Because you’ve lost a loved one so tragically, it’s normal that you’re going to be in a lot of pain. It doesn’t make you any less of a person to accept and acknowledge that you’re suffering in pain. That you don’t know how life will be without them. 

When you’re more open about acknowledging your pain, it’s easier for you to pat yourself for the better days when you seem to laugh more than you cry.

In these good days, you realize that you can heal without forgetting the person. It’s through this process that you know, and you can convince yourself that you don’t have to be stuck in this negative situation for the rest of your life.

3. Take Good Care Of Yourself

This section may seem like non-doable advice for some. Really, how does one take good care of themselves when they’re going through such a difficult time in their life? 

The truth is, if you put your mind into this, it’s possible. The loved one that left this world so suddenly doesn’t want to see you suffer for the rest of your life. Plus, when you don’t take good care of yourself, you’re just piling up one problem on top of the other.

Now isn’t the right time for you to get into a harmful vice addiction or physical problem, because you’ve lost someone so dear to you. It’s enough that your mental health problem is fighting by a very slim thread.

For example, don’t sulk yourself in alcohol or drugs. This may give you a temporary escape from the world. But, when this dies down, what do you face the next day? A nasty hangover, still the same loss, with no problem solved. 

If done in the long run, you may fall into a severe addiction problem. According to multiple wrongful death attorneys, this can be a common response to be violent, to resort to vices, or even to revenge. But you should know that this isn’t right.

Rather than putting your health and life on the line, use this negative time for you to grow in strength, to slowly become a better you, one day at a time. Give yourself the time to eat healthily and to exercise as your outlet.

4. Don’t Compare Your Grief With That Of Others

Just because you take a long time to cope up with your emotions, it doesn’t other people should do the same. Some other times, you might see them acting as if nothing happened. 

But by looking at them on the outside, you may not even be able to tell that they’ve recently gone through a painful loss. So, now that you’re in that position of grieving the loss of your loved one, you’ll wish to be like that too.

When the end of the month comes, and you’re not as healed as that friend of yours, don’t be too hard on yourself. Never compare your grieving process and your struggles with that of others. 

Grief is a unique experience for you, as it is with others. You will heal, too, for as long as you help yourself. Comparing your journey with that of others will only complicate your feelings even more. It’s completely understandable if you are struggling to cope with your grief. No matter what you’re experiencing, your feelings are valid. Licensed therapists (like those at BetterHelp) can help you process your grief in healthy ways.

Conclusion

Grief is the natural response that human beings will have to lose a loved one. More so when you lose a loved one tragically, wherein one day you wake up, and they’re no longer there. You haven’t got a chance to say goodbye, nor will you even get to see them again in this life. 

As dark as this time may be in your life, the good news is that this doesn’t always have to be like this forever. There are ways for you to move on, to cope, to heal, and to make your mental health whole again. Some of these enumerated above are only a few.