What Is Grief?
Grief or loss can be emotionally debilitating. Grief or loss can relate to death, but there are many types of grief, and it can extend to many more events. For example, if a spouse becomes diagnosed with dementia, the other spouse may grieve the partner he or she used to be. If a woman has a miscarriage, she may need to grieve the loss of her unborn child and the visions she had for him or her. If a professional gets laid-off, he or she may grieve the loss of working for an organization that they loved.
How Does Grief Affect People?
Everyone has different reactions to grief. Some people may feel like they fall apart. They find themselves crying inconsolably for days on end, and they think they will never be able to move on. Others may experience acute anger. They might feel enraged at the doctor who diagnosed the condition too late or the other driver who ran the red light. Some may experience a sense of numbness. They move through their days feeling detached from their emotions altogether.
Grief and loss move through different stages. It’s normal for certain days or hours to feel much harder than others. It’s also normal to feel sad one day and happy the next. Depending on the relationship with the person, life might dramatically change, and this change may feel depressing, overwhelming, or insurmountable.
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How I Can Support You Healing From Grief
Loss can and will hurt, but you don’t have to suffer, obsess, blame yourself, or hold onto the wounds for the rest of your life. Grief work isn’t about forgetting what happened or forgetting the other person. Instead, it’s about finding a path towards healing. It is also about moving towards a more sustainable place of acceptance for your current reality which may feel difficult or impossible at times.
