Well reasons for coping...

1. Family? my mother is battling cancer and is losing her battle but she is coping because she always has something to look forward to that often pertains to kids/grandkids like “so and so is graduating oh I need to be well by this and that date because so and so is getting married etc I better don’t die before that”. That keeps her going. So kids, grandkids...Even when people have no kids... still some family. Good friend of mine has no kids, but she is close to her brother’s family and it’s always something to look forward to (visit with him etc). Actually my other good friend has no kids either but she is very close to her niece so it’s always something to look forward to with her niece and her events.

2. Life itself is a good reason to cope.
What else is there? Not going to have another life. My family lost whole ton of people in Holocaust, some survived concentration camp but most didn’t. My grandparents survived but lost their parents (my great grandparents) and all their siblings (grandpa had 7 sisters, none made it). Don’t even know how they coped but their motto was “we survived, so might as well enjoy it now”. They always partied a lot. Danced, always had people over and stuff like that.

3. Finding things to look forward to. Little things. Or big events. Plan things ahead of time and look forward to. That often elevates one’s mood.