People experience pain and grief when they lose someone close to their hearts. It is considered as a common feeling and can interfere with your daily activities. Some people take it lightly and some are can’t. we would advise you to not give grief a chance of taking your life. You will become helpless, hopeless, and if you let grief takes over your life. One should know the difference between grief and depression. If you think grief takes over your life, then we would advise you to have a word with your physician and take proper treatment from him.
Overview
Grief comes to your life in the form of death of a family member or someone close to your heart, losing a promotion, and break up or divorce, etc. If you lose something valuable for you can make you experience this feeling. The following are the expressions of grief. These expressions include
- Crying
- Getting anger for no reason
- Withdraw
- Feeling empty
Grief is different for everyone and the way people react to it is completely based on his personality. Some people are able to mingle with this feeling and some are unable to lead their life with this feeling.
What are the causes of grief?
There are many losses that can contribute to the cause of grief. Coping with grief is a very difficult thing in life. You will face a lot of problems if you don’t know unable to cope with it.
Selling the family home, divorce or relationship breakup, loss of safety after a trauma, not in a better health condition, losing your friendship with your best friend for a big reason, unable to get the promotion, serious illness to someone very close to your heart, unable to bear the expenses, unable to fulfill your dream, getting near to retirement, death of your favorite pet, and a miscarriage are the causes of grief.
If you are feeling sad due to the above reasons, we would advise you to consult a psychiatrist immediately or speak with someone you can trust also helps. people take this problem lightly and it may take over your life if you don’t respond to it correctly. People experience grief even for a silly reason. For instance, moving from one home to another home, leaving your friends, or changing your jobs. Whatever the cause of your grief, you must learn how to cope with it otherwise you may put your life at risk.
What are the indicators of grief?
As per the health professionals’ point of view, the symptoms of grief are categorized into three types. These types include
- Emotional symptoms of grief
- Physical symptoms of grief
- Complicated symptoms of grief
Hard for you to accept the truth, feelings of emptiness, deep loneliness, feel guilty about things, getting angry for no reason, worries, and fears are considered as the emotional symptoms of grief.
Getting difficulty in sleeping or unable to sleep, exhaustiveness, body pains, nausea or vomiting, aches, low levels of immunity, and sudden changes in your weight are considered as the physical symptoms of grief.
Unable to lead a life, intense longing for your deceased family member, showing your anger levels at peaks, bitterness over your loss, intrusive thoughts or images of the dead person, avoiding things that remind you of your loved one, unable to accept the truth that person is no more, searching for your deceased loved one in familiar places that he or she used to roam and imaging your life the person who is dead is still alive are considered as the complicate symptoms of grief.
What are the differences between depression and grief?
It is not an easy task to differentiate these two as there are a lot of common symptoms between them. But one difference is depression is a constant feeling and experiencing grief is like going on a roller coaster ride because grief is associated with a wide variety of emotions and feelings. Sometimes, a person might feel happy even when you are in the middle of the grieving process.
Making attempts to commit suicide, pervasive sense of guilt, unable to concentrate on the things, seeing or hearing things that are not there, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, slow speech, and body movements are the symptoms of depression that are not associated with grief.
When to see a doctor
If you are unable to live your life due to the loss of your loved one, then we would advise you to have a word with your grief counselor or professional therapist.
Unable to give value to your life, difficult to do your normal daily activities, wish you had died with your loved one, unable to trust anyone since the loss of your loved one, blaming yourself for the death of your family member or failing to prevent it, feeling numb and behaving like an abnormal person or not connected to this world are the feelings of a person who is in the middle of a grieving process.
If you are experiencing the above feelings, then it is better for you to consult your professional therapist or your mental health professional therapist. If you neglect yourself during the grieving process, then you are going to put your life in danger.
What are the stages of grief?
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are the five stages of grief. No person will experience all these stages. If one person can cope with one stage and the same person may unable to cope with another stage. Let’s discuss these stages in detail
Denial
Denial is the first stage of grief. It is very difficult for the person to accept the truth he or she is not living anymore. Denial takes time but if you cope with it gradually then it will be easy for you to become the person you were. This denial feeling helps you to mingle with the situation and makes you not to accept the truth.
It is not good for you to live in this stage for a long time. In this stage, people who lost their loved ones pretend that the person who is died is still living with them. It is difficult for you to forward in your life without this person. Once you come out from this stage, you will begin to think that this person is no more and you will accept the truth.
Anger
Anger is the second stage of grief and it is common for everyone. People experience this when they feel helpless and powerless.
Bargaining
Bargaining is considered as the defense or protecting yourself from the emotions of grief. It helps you to get relief from feelings such as
- Sadness
- Confusion
- Hurt
Depression
Depression is the fourth stage of grief. You will not express your hard feelings in this stage and you will remain calm due to this reason it is considered as the quiet stage of grief. Whereas, people feel very active and powerful when they are in the second and third stage i.e. anger and bargaining.
In the fourth stage of grief, you don’t want to spend time with the people and you will bear the loss yourself. It is a dangerous stage as people will be stuck in this stage forever. If you feel like you are not unable to come out from this stage, then we would advise you to consult your mental health professional or grief counselor immediately. Because your grief counselor may help you to deal with this stage.
Acceptance
This is the last and fifth stage of grief. People will accept the truth in this stage and no longer feel the pain of the loss of a person. Once he or she accepts the truth, then the chances of developing the other stages are low. Sadness and regret can still be present at this stage.
Coping
We would advise you to find a way to cope with the stages of grief. Taking support from your friends and family members can help you to cope and move on with your life. Also, accepting the truth that you are not the only one who is suffering releases you from grief. Believe in yourself that you can deal with it and nothing can stop from there. You should be mentally strong when it comes to coping with the stages of grief.
If you are unable to deal with grief then we would advise you to join a support group. It works as you will share your sadness with other people who have undergone a similar process like you. It nothing is helping you and you are still sticking to that person, then we would advise you to have a word with your grief counselor or with your mental health professional. The main objective of this therapy is to bring back your normal life. An experiencing psychiatrist may help you to overcome the obstacles that are stopping you from becoming a normal person again.
Conclusion
Accept the fact that coping with grief is very difficult. It is not an easy task for you to describe your feelings into any one of the stages. It will take time to process all of your emotions and also consulting your mental health professional or grief counselor can help you get better.
References
- https://www.bmj.com/content/316/7134/856.1
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/contributions-of-attachment-theory-and-research-a-framework-for-future-research-translation-and-policy/65D81362DE97653978AAE443CB64B5E1
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0030222817691870
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC516672/
Sirisha B