Empty nest syndrome is known as that set of thoughts and emotions that parents feel at the moment when their children finally become independent and leave home. This is how psychologist Sonia Castro describes the experience that many mothers and fathers must go through who see how their children are now definitively adults, who have left their childhood and adolescence behind to embark on the project of creating their own life and future.
This means for parents a whole whirlwind of sensations, among which are a feeling of sadness, loneliness, boredom, even emptiness due to the loss of their children in their routine and daily life. Specialist Sonia Castro explains that empty nest syndrome is nothing more than a grief. And she specifies that it also has its own phases, such as anger, denial, depression and acceptance.
Mothers and fathers who experience empty nest syndrome usually do so mainly for three different reasons, as the psychologist points out. The first of them is due to a feeling of loneliness, after all, they have spent at least the last 18 years with their children in the same home. However, another reason could be a lack of self-realization, which usually occurs in those parents who have completely focused their lives on their children, leaving aside other aspects of their own life. The professional warns that it is necessary to be careful in these cases, since empty nest syndrome could lead to a case of depression.
And the third reason: problems in the couple. Sometimes couples find some stability because of children. But once they leave home, the couple is not able to live with each other, or they lose that which made them have something in common and that united them.
So, what to do to manage empty nest syndrome in a healthy way? Psychologist Sonia Castro shares a series of recommendations for those mothers and fathers who find themselves in this situation.
