Sometimes it seems that there is bad news on the agenda, sometimes they appear unexpectedly and sometimes we were sure that they would arrive sooner or later, an example of this is the loss of a loved one after a serious illness, although it hurts, in these cases it seems that it is easier?tell others.
There are other situations in which death is totally unexpected and we do not know how to communicate it to others, an accident, an attack or a natural disaster are examples of situations that, in a second, can overturn our whole world, bringing for us a very important person.
- Although no one wants to live these kinds of experiences.
- The truth is that.
- Unfortunately.
- It is the law of life.
- The question is how to deal with these experiences and.
- In some cases.
- How to tell others what happened.
- Learn some tips on how to announce bad news.
“Every story is an infinite catastrophe from which we try to get out in the best possible way” – Italo Calvino-
Giving bad news is a very complicated task, besides having to go through a terrible misfortune, the reality is that we feel bad, not only because of our own feelings for the deceased, but also because we care about the people we go to. Say.
We are concerned about the fear of hurting them, even if we try to speak in the best possible way, and we also do not know how people will react to us, they can blame us for what happened or even respond badly, everything. It depends on everyone’s ability to deal with, as communicators of this news, we don’t have to regard everyone’s reaction as personal.
“How unfair, how cursed, what a bastard to death who does not kill us, but who kills those we love” – Carlos Fuentes-
On the other hand, in these situations we generally do not have much information, the normal thing is that the loved ones of the deceased have many questions to ask us, that is where the fear of not knowing what to say arises, but the reality is that we are human and not We always have all the answers to the questions posed to us, even less when unexpected misfortunes occur.
One way to deal with these negative emotions that occur, as well as to try to reduce, as far as possible, that of our interlocutors, is to prepare to communicate the bad news before doing so. A first step is to try to collect all the information about what happened, in order to answer the questions they ask us.
We also need to know who we are going to tell what happened, it is not the same to prepare the message for children as for parents, friends or couples, although this does not seem important, we can put ourselves better in the shoes of the person and adapt our speech to the conditions of each one.
So it’s time to find a suitable place to tell what happened, it may seem logical, but never mind that it’s important to be as private as possible, finally, it’s extremely relevant to mentally prepare for what we’re going to do. say and how, in this way we will avoid saying something unfortunate that increases the pain of the other person.
“After all, death is just a symptom of life. ” – Mario Benedetti-
Once we have prepared for everything said before comes the moment of truth, what we say will not bring back the deceased, but we can make the other person feel as bad as possible, for that the information we give him must be very clear and we must be sure that it is true, otherwise , we can confuse our interlocutor and generate even more negative emotions.
Then we’ll tell each other everything that happened gradually. For example: “There was a car accident and her husband was seriously injured. The ambulance that was there tried to revive him, but failed. I’m sorry, but Pedro is dead. “
We must say the name of the deceased, in addition to saying expressions concerning death, so that it is clear what happened, if the person has questions, he must feel that he can interrupt us to ask him, so that he feels that we are empathetic with them and that we will try to support them in these difficult times.
As we see, announcing bad news is not simple, comfortable or desirable, but it is important to know how to do it so that others understand what happened, requires a lot of delicacy, a lot of security and, above all, a lot of empathy to endure the suffering of those who receive the news.