Loss is a part of life. As life goes on and you experience more of it, you’ll start to realize that all things that live have to die. Whether it be a relationship with your significant other or starting a new job, the loss can be both terrifying and liberating.
People cope with these losses in different ways. From social withdraw to drugs and alcohol, the multitude of ways in which you can deal is enormous. However, each loss can lead to a positive way to cope.
Positive coping mechanisms are key to getting your life back on track and creating a new “normal.”
Social Withdraw
When you lose a loved one, it can definitely take a toll on you in various ways. Emotionally, your mind is fried. Your loved one is a person whom you never could have imagined your life without. Suddenly, you’re left with an empty world to wander aimlessly around in. When this happens, some people withdraw into themselves. They stop seeing friends and become antisocial.
When you see someone doing this (or experience it yourself), there is one solid solution to cope with this loss. Talking to someone and making a human connection is important in these tough times. Especially when the person has withdrawn emotionally and socially, getting them back into society is important. Talking is a bridge from isolation to socialization.
Any time in life is a great time to talk. If you ever feel like you can’t talk to anyone, then it’s time to force yourself to talk.
Read The Stages Of Grief: Ways To Cope With Loss and Minimize The Pain
Form a Habit
Loss is something that nobody likes to experience. Not only does loss take a person or job or animal away from you, but it also takes away something else: control. Death or the loss of something almost never falls under your control. Instead, it’s almost always an outside force that takes the thing away.
This loss of control can make you feel helpless and powerless. To deal with this lack of control, people form habits that they can control (or at the least form habits that take the pain away). These include drugs, alcohol or any other type of activity that typically ends up hurting the person.
Coping with these habits is an interesting proposition. The best thing you can do is to latch onto a healthy habit. Walking, running, drawing or anything else that expresses yourself is a good thing to do. The only thing you have to watch is to not take the habit to an extreme. An extreme of anything is not good for a person and should be avoided at any point in time in your life.
Sadness
Sadness is a healthy and normal part of the grieving process. It’s how the mind begins to cope with what has happened. Sadness can stem from many different forms of loss, whether it be losing a person, a relationship or a job. Along with these, losing a pet can be just as devastating. For example, a study noted that 35% of people continue to grieve after 6 months of losing a pet. No matter what the reason for your sadness may be, allow yourself time to feel sad. Your mind needs to digest what has happened. But, also realize that tomorrow is a new day. Time can do wonders, and healing is one of them. Give it time. It will get better.
Read 5 Ways To Eliminate Sadness From Your Life
Blame
With any sort of loss, sometimes you may feel as if you caused the loss. Whether it be the loss of a job or a person, the loss can feel as if you squarely caused it. Though this is mostly untrue most of the time, it can feel as if the entire world has turned on you. However, you have to realize that you didn’t cause the loss. It was never in your control.
The best solution to combat this is to realize that things happen. Whether you want them to or not, life is going to happen. There’s only so much you can control in life. You have to realize that, sometimes, life has a way of making things happen. While you can control some things in life, others are simply out of reach. Realize this and accept that you didn’t cause the loss. Life did.
Losing something is a major part of life, but is also an emotionally impactful part of life as well. Always try to remember that life has a will of its own. Sometimes, you can’t control what happens. What you can control is your reaction to it.
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