The irony is that this type of thinking, creating the myriad situations that could have happened, is both illogical and unhelpful in adapting to what has actually happened. Our brain may still be doing it for a reason, however. Some would say the reason is to try to figure out how to avoid deaths in the future, but it may be simpler than that. Our brain, by focusing constantly on the limitless number of alternatives to reality, is numbed or distracted from the actual, painful reality that the person is never coming back. Even when the counterfactual thinking involves the painful experience of
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