Continuing our discussion from yesterday about grief, I wanted to extend the topic into another post because it is one that warrants attention and relevance. As awful and heartbreaking as grief is, it is something that affects most of us at some point in life, and because it can be such an overwhelming and confusing experience, I think it makes sense to educate ourselves to best understand grief, and, furthermore, how to determine helpful and healthy coping mechanisms.
I’ve lost a few people in my own life, but I am certainly not a grief expert. So, please read about grief and how to best navigate it with some information from helpguide.org.
“While grieving a loss is an inevitable part of life, there are ways to help cope with the pain, come to terms with your grief, and eventually, find a way to pick up the pieces and move on with your life.
- Recognize the difference between grief and depression.
- Acknowledge your pain.
- Accept that grief can trigger many different and unexpected emotions.
- Understand that your grieving process will be unique to you.
- Seek out face-to-face support from people who care about you.
- Support yourself emotionally by taking care of yourself physically.
“The 5 stages of grief
“In 1969, psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced what became known as the ‘five stages of grief.’ These stages of grief were based on her studies of the feelings of patients facing terminal illness, but many people have generalized them to other types of negative life changes and losses, such as the death of a loved one or a break-up.
“The 5 stages of grief are:
- Denial: ‘This can’t be happening to me.’
- Anger: ‘Why is this happening? Who is to blame?’
- Bargaining: ‘Make this not happen, and in return I will ____.’
- Depression: ‘I’m too sad to do anything.’
- Acceptance: ‘I’m at peace with what happened.’
“If you are experiencing any of these emotions following a loss, it may help to know that your reaction is natural and that you’ll heal in time. However, not everyone who grieves goes through all of these stages—and that’s okay. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to go through each stage in order to heal.
“In fact, some people resolve their grief without going through any of these stages. And if you do go through these stages of grief, you probably won’t experience them in a neat, sequential order, so don’t worry about what you ‘should’ be feeling or which stage you’re supposed to be in.
“Kübler-Ross herself never intended for these stages to be a rigid framework that applies to everyone who mourns. In her last book before her death in 2004, she said of the five stages of grief: ‘They were never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages. They are responses to loss that many people have, but there is not a typical response to loss, as there is no typical loss. Our grieving is as individual as our lives,'” the web page explains.
Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash
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