The end is here. Don’t shoot the messenger with a crossbow, but by 20 May of this year, Game Of Thrones will have aired its last ever episode. There will be an outbreak of collective grieving when the saga of the Seven Kingdoms raises its sword of Valyrian steel for the final time. In terms of our TV viewing, winter has truly come.

For the past eight years, millions of devotees worldwide have devoured HBO’s panoramic, mega-budget tale of death, dragons, dire wolves and Dothraki. Expect existential angst and withdrawal symptoms when the credits roll and Mr Ramin Djawadi’s eminently recognisable theme song finally fades out.

No more worshipping Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. No more taking guilty pleasure in Cersei Lannister’s latest act of cruelty. No more quoting Tyrion, rooting for Brienne of Tarth, intoning “Hodor” or eye-rolling as Bran Stark drones on about the Three-Eyed Raven. Again.

So how to get through this impending crisis? Here’s our handy five-point recovery plan…

The all-slaying success of Game Of Thrones has led to a revival of the fantasy genre, opening the floodgates for TV execs to raid the bookshelves for a raft of similar series (seriously, there’s a lot). Amazon is adapting Mr JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings and Mr Robert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel Of Time saga. Netflix projects include Mr CS Lewis’ Chronicles Of Narnia, Mr Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels and Mr Andrzej Sapkowski’s cult monster-hunting yarn The Witcher. Hamilton creator Mr Lin-Manuel Miranda is working with Showtime on Mr Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicle, and HBO has commissioned Mr Joss Whedon’s The Nevers and Ms Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death. Even the BBC is getting in on the act with its ambitious take on Sir Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, slated to arrive this autumn. We can’t guarantee they’ll be as great as Game Of Thrones, of course, but they might just fill the Iron Throne-shaped hole in your life.

Game Of Thrones is one of the six best TV dramas of all-time. That’s not opinion, that’s scientific fact (well, at least, according to the algorithms that determine what comes up when you type in “best TV dramas of all-time”). We assume you’ve ticked off the other five – The Sopranos, Mad Men, The Wire, The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad – but if any have somehow slipped through your televisual net, now is the time to rectify that. Immersing yourself in the New Jersey mob, 1960s New York ad land, the underbelly of Baltimore, post-zombie apocalypse Atlanta or crystal meth-manufacturing in Albuquerque will ease your Winterfell withdrawal symptoms, milk of the poppy-style.

If you haven’t read the source novels, Mr George RR Martin’s epic A Song Of Ice And Fire series, take the plunge. They’re sufficiently different to HBO’s hit adaptation that they’ll feel bracingly fresh and your inner nerd will love spotting where they diverge. Five have been published. A sixth, The Winds Of Winter, is currently being completed. The seventh and final novel, A Dream Of Spring, is planned and promised. They’ll keep you busy for months.

There is more to come from the world of Westeros – just not as we know it. In the pipeline is a prequel series based on the books, provisionally titled The Long Night, starring Ms Naomi Watts and slated to go into production this summer. It’ll take place thousands of years before the events depicted in Game Of Thrones, exploring the history of Westeros and the true origins of the White Walkers. HBO initially commissioned five different ideas for prequels and spin-offs, so there could be even more offshoots heading our way.

If nothing truly compares, simply start again and re-watch all 73 glorious episodes (that’s almost three whole days of viewing – eek). We guarantee there will be entire storylines and characters you’d forgotten, you’ll spot foreshadowing of future events and see extra resonances second (or third) time around. It might not be quite as good as the first time – what is? – but hey, it can help you pretend it isn’t quite over.