pain of losing a friend....

Dealing with the pain of losing a friend

When you lose a friend, the end of the friendship can feel as devastating as a bereavement. But it's difficult to grieve, exactly, because your friend is not dead. Just no longer your friend. So there's no funeral rites to help you, and no condolences from other people. The foundations of your life have been shaken - but everybody expects you to go on as normal.

Losing a friend can cause deep grief

You may know what it was that brought your friendship to an end. If it was by mutual agreement, you may have expected that you would be able to handle the loss of your friend with equanimity. You may be puzzled to find yourself going through the stages of grief. You may feel inexplicably weepy. Or angry. Or depressed. Because, even if you ended the friendship by agreement, you really have lost something important.

The pain of not knowing why the friendship ended

And it can be even trickier if you are not sure why the friendship has ended. Because then you may be questioning and blaming yourself - was it something I said? Something I did? And there is no answer to these painful questions. Although we like to think that 'there must be a reason', people's motives are not necessarily rationally explicable. Yet somehow you have to find a way to go on with your life without this friend.

Regards,

Sugandh.S