How to Help Yourself and Others Cope With a Relative's Wrongful Death

Dealing with the death of a loved one is extremely difficult, regardless of whether they have been suffering from an ailment or if the death was due to natural causes.

However, it is even more difficult trying to cope and accept the death of a loved one, if the death was due to the negligence of a stranger. The sudden wrongful death of a loved one can be quite traumatic. 

Here are some tips to help you and your family cope with such a loss.

1. Don’t Ignore the Pain

People often assume that if they ignore any kind of pain, it will simply go away. While ignoring the pain can certainly help you avoid it for a while, it is still going to be present in the back of your mind. It will fester and get worse instead of healing properly. Losing a loved one is painful, and experiencing such pain does not mean you are weak. In fact, accepting the emotions you experience is a sign of strength. Remember that if you have children in the family, then you should be setting an example for them, too. 

2. Build a Support System

Having a support system in place can be very helpful in times of grief. Whether it is a circle of friends or family, it is great to have people that you trust around you to give you the care you need after a loved one’s death. This is especially helpful at the beginning when it is a struggle to get back to your daily routine; this is the time when you require the most support, especially from people who share your grief seeing as you can help each other by remembering the person you lost, sharing memories, and collectively keeping them in your thoughts at this tenuous time.

3. Accept Differences in Emotional Responses

It is important to realize that people have different ways of dealing with emotional stress in their lives. While you might find it therapeutic to cry it out, others in your family can have different methods of letting their grief out. If a person does not cry after the death of a loved one, it certainly does not mean that they are unaffected or that they don’t care. Children especially will have their grief and loss manifesting in different actions ranging from crying to lashing out and even seeking attention through intentional misbehavior as a means of crying out for help. As long as the person is actively dealing with their grief, you need to accept their methods even if they are completely different from yours.

4. Seek Answers to Get Closure

As mentioned above, wrongful deaths are harder to overcome than death caused by natural causes. If you are trying to cope with such a loss, you should try looking for answers that will help you get the necessary closure and aid you in handling your grief and sense of loss. If you are unsure where to start, you can do a simple online search for lawyers in your area. If you live in Atlanta, and you want to find out what procedures you need to take to get the answers and closure that you need to move on, you can look for Atlanta wrongful death attorneys to find a reliable law firm there. This will help you uncover any negligence or mistakes that could have resulted in the loss you are suffering from.

5- Try to Keep a Steady Routine

Although it is extremely hard to keep up any kind of routine after such a trauma, it is essential you try to get there. Having a routine is helpful because it keeps you from spiraling into depressive episodes. If you think your trauma is too heavy to bear on your own, make sure you see help from a certified therapist or speak with a psychiatrist if you’re developing any symptoms. This goes, of course, for other family members dealing with grief as well. You can help them get back to their daily routines so that they can have an easier time healing.

Any grieving process has its ups and downs. Some days are going to be easier to go through than others. The most important thing to do is accept your loved one’s death and know that they’re in a peaceful place. You can speak to your loved ones, set up a shrine, and share memories - whatever you do, make sure that you’re surrounded by supportive people in times of need. Following these different steps, you can overcome your loss and help your loved ones through their grief as well.