Several individuals report that they cannot allow themselves to get too thin, because of their association between thinness and impending death. Children who previously believed that only old people die, felt betrayed by parents and others who had given them that faulty information. They saw doctors and parents as powerless to protect them from sickness and death and were afraid of even minor physical problems. Later, as adults, they may hang on to these beliefs. Guilt and Remorse The effects of losing a sibling undergo constant change.
Emotions surface at different times throughout a lifetime.
For some, there is a generalized sense of guilt, while others feel guilty about something very specific that they did to their sibling when he or she was alive, something they imagine may have contributed to the death. This may be name-calling, hitting, teasing, or other typical sibling behavior, or may be death wishes towards the deceased sibling. As adults who are looking back on their experience, some survivors said that they felt guilty about how they acted during the time surrounding the death. Some, for example, had not been able to tolerate the physical pain of their sibling and dealt with this by avoiding the sick brother or sister. Looking back, their actions still continue to cause them intense remorse and emotional pain.