It’s never easy to cope with the death of a loved one, especially if the death was unexpected and caused by the negligence of others. It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed at such a time, but it’s also important not to allow grief to overcome you. Here are a few ways to cope with the wrongful death of a loved one.
Acknowledge Your Grief
Everyone’s grief is personal to them, but there are some common feelings many of us share. These feelings can include denial, guilt, deep sadness, and anger. While it’s hard, you’ll need to address these feelings as soon as possible. If undealt with, you’ll be left with more serious issues down the line.
It’s common for those wrestling with grief to fall into depression, struggle with insomnia, or become socially withdrawn. While these are natural reactions, they aren’t inevitable. There are some steps you can take to deal with grief in a healthy way.
Get Counseling
Professional therapists can help you understand what you’re feeling and work through it. Through specific strategies and emotional support, you can move forward and find peace. And if you’re grieving because of wrongful death, you can seek compensation for these services.
Talk to Friends or Find a Support Group
Now isn’t the time to shut out other people. Let them know what’s happening in your life and express your feelings. You don’t have to handle your grief on your own, and you might be surprised at how well friends can empathize if you’ll let them.
Take Concrete Steps
One of the hardest things about losing a loved one in a wrongful death is the feeling of helplessness. You may even feel misplaced guilt, believing that you could have stopped the death somehow. While this isn’t true, it can be hard to shake feelings of guilt.
One way to move past these feelings is to take action. Some things you can’t change, but there are valuable things you can do.
Get Legal Help
You can’t bring back your loved one, but you may be able to stop this from happening to someone else, and you should be able to get compensation for the loss you’ve suffered. An experienced accident attorney can help you understand your rights and the best steps to take in pursuing a personal injury case.
Make the Final Arrangements
Denial is often what holds us back from healing when a loved one dies. If you’re having trouble accepting the loss of a loved one, a step in the right direction could be arranging for the cremation and planning a memorial that honors their memory.
Have a Strategy
One of the hardest things about loss is the way it keeps cycling back. Just when we think we’ve dealt with it and moved on, something reminds us of our loved one and all the grief is back.
Reminders can take any form. They can come driving past a restaurant, on an anniversary, or even at random moments that seem to have no trigger. The key is to have a strategy to deal with grief when it returns.
Plan a Distraction
When you know you’re approaching a key anniversary or something that will remind you of your loved one, intentionally plan something else. It’s even better if your plan involves others you love.
Remember Intentionally
When the grief comes back, all you can think about is the loss. Combat this by thinking intentionally about the great times you had together with your loved one. It may help to write down some of these thoughts and review them when grief returns.
Start New Traditions
If you struggle to get through a holiday without a loved one or spend their birthday wrestling with deep grief, consider making a new tradition that can honor the old while helping you move on. This could be making a donation, planning a girls’/guys’ night out, or even binge-watching a favorite movie series with a good friend.
