Writer Beautifully Articulates Why Regret Can Be Harder To Handle Than Grief

It's another type of mourning, she says.
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Grief has the capacity to be a powerful, debilitating emotion. But according to Negroland author Margo Jefferson, there’s actually something that can be even harder to handle than grief: regret.

“With grief, you’re mourning something that’s gone. With regret, you’re mourning ― missing ― something that never was,” Jefferson explains. “It didn’t happen, and that was because you wouldn’t or couldn’t let it happen.”

Regret, she continues, has a unique staying power.

“That always comes back to you and it hangs inside you,” Jefferson says. “You can get through grief. I don’t think you ever fully forget a regret.”

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