Music can help so many people through some of the most challenging times of their lives, whether grieving the loss of friendship or the death of a loved one. In the last 2 1/2 years, I have lost three people very close to me.

Here are five songs that have helped me through this tough time of my life. I hope they do the same for you.

Until it Happens to You explores the idea that until you experience losing someone close to you don’t honestly know what grief and loss feels like. In the songs, she sings:

You can have a friend lose somebody close And you can be there when they need it most, but You won’t be the one having trouble sleeping

End of Youth illustrates grief and loss changes a person and how it’s genuinely the moment you become an adult.

In the chorus, he sings:

Is this the endin’ of our youth when pain starts takin’ over?I just don’t know if I can ever just let it go.

Everything’s fallin’ apart, when love is real, there’s never closure I guess it’s all part of life, but I can’t help but feel low

3. Hasn’t Hit Me Yet by Seth Giler (2017)

Hasn’t Hit Me Yet explores the surreal feeling that you know someone’s gone, but I can’t fully comprehend it or imagine a life without the person you lost.

He sings let me hold it together because I can’t accept I’ve never been in the world without you in it.

The World Keeps Spinning captures the feelings of losing someone and feeling like your world stopped, but the world keeps going on like nothing has happened. In the song, Shorr sings the powerful lyrics:

The sky didn’t even have the decency to cry and that damn son still found a way to shine

These Tears explores the feeling when you finally realize you’re going to be okay after losing a loved one, and even though the person is no longer in the physical world, you feel them.

In the chorus, he sings:

I’m learnin’ how to be alone

I’m broken, but give it time

I’m gon’ be alright.

These tears mean it’s settlin’ in

That I’m not gon’ see you again

‘Til one day in another life

But I’m gon be al —; I’m gon’ be alright.