Most people die in February. How to cope with the death of a loved one?

No matter what month of the year it is, death is a loss for the bereaved to deal with. Coping with the passing of a loved one is very difficult and there is no single guaranteed advice that would help. However, if someone finds himself in a difficult situation and does not know how to get out of it, he can turn to organizations that help to overcome this difficult time.

They include, among others, the Vigvam Counseling Center, which was founded by therapist Sylvie Stretti. People can call their crisis lines once when they feel bad.

People turn to Vigvam on different occasions, so it cannot be said unequivocally that some period is more exposed. “Of course, at Christmas, especially the first without a deceased person, it is important to pay attention to how it will go. To make them as least burdensome as possible,” Sylvia Stretti gives an example of a riskier period.

However, as he adds, the first anniversary of the deceased’s birthday, the anniversary of death, or perhaps a significant moment that the bereaved has with a loved one can be similarly burdensome.

Although death is still a bit of a taboo in society and people sometimes try not to admit it at all, this is slowly starting to change. According to the therapist, grieving has also shifted over the past fifteen years or so, people approach it more openly.

“Covid also did a service – that is, not a good one – to it. We couldn’t suppress death, suddenly it was all around us, in the media, it touched practically everyone,” says Sylvie Stretti. As he explains, grieving is not only crying and pain, as some imagine, but it can also be connected with how a person learns to live his life after the death of a loved one. Knowing that sometimes there will be moments when he is more sad, when he is irritable, angry.

Studies show that it takes two years for a person to cope with a new situation. “This is the most acute phase. The first year everything is new, the second year I take stock, compare what it was like with him, what it was like without him,” the therapist explains what a person experiences during that time.

Of course, the period of grief can be prolonged, especially when it comes to so-called “complicated grieving”, when the whole situation is made even more difficult by the concurrence of several other circumstances. A person can, for example, deal with worries about employment, the need to move, and the like. The mourning itself then postpones to a later time.

How to talk about death with children? Why are the Harry Potter books so beneficial in this regard? And why talk about how I want to die? Listen to the new episode of MUDr.ování in the beginning of the article, where therapist Sylvie Stretti was a guest.