Shankar Vedantam

As we grapple with the end of such relationships, we may feel we cannot get closure until we know the answers to our questions.

But those answers are not forthcoming.

In some cases, the person is no longer alive.

In others, the person has disappeared or is otherwise inaccessible.

When we come back, how can we deal with situations like this, where we feel we have been left in limbo?

You're listening to Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Do you have questions for Antonio Pasquale Leone about breakups that you've experienced in your own life?

Are there losses that have left you feeling stuck?

Have you come up with techniques of your own to move past a breakup and discover a better version of yourself?

If you'd be willing to share your question or comment with the Hidden Brain audience, please record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at ideas at hiddenbrain.org.

Two or three minutes is plenty.

Use the subject line, breakups.

Again, that's ideas at hiddenbrain.org.

There are many situations in life where the end of a relationship brings endless questions.

Sometimes those are questions we can answer for ourselves, but other times we need answers from a lost partner or an absent co-worker or a dead parent.

Answers that are not forthcoming.

Without being able to understand how and why the relationship came apart, we feel we cannot move forward with our own lives.

Antonio Pasqualeone is a psychologist at the University of Windsor in Canada.

He is the author of Principles of Emotion Change, What Works and When in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life.