Have you ever made it through something awful or survived a disaster and instead of feeling good you felt this heaviness in the pit of your stomach?

When tragedy befalls those around us but leaves us unscathed, some of us feel really guilty.

Welcome back to savvy psychologist.

I'm your host Dr. J-Woo.

Every week I'll help you meet life's challenges

with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear,

and zero judgment.

Today we talk about how to understand and cope with survivor guilt.

Survivor guilt happens when a person perceives themselves to have done something wrong by surviving a catastrophe or injustice

while others died or suffered. Its intensity can run the gamut from bittersweet to all-out despair.

Survivor guilt is conventionally associated with large-scale catastrophes

like the battlefield or a plane crash,

but it can actually pop up in more common situations too.

For example, one study found that about 65% of cancer patient caretakers experienced survivor guilt.

Anyone who has participated in a cancer support group

will recognize the many layers of grief

after the group loses one of its members. The survivors ask each other, you know, why did

she die while we're still here? She was so kind and giving and she left behind two kids

and grandkids. Why are we the lucky ones?

In 2020, Survivor Guilt might be even more salient than usual.

Think for example of, say a grad student from Florida, despairing over the

fate of his family and country while he studies physics in Germany, watching the coronavirus

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