What do you know about grief?
Most people will experience loss at some point in their lives. Grief is a response to any form of loss. Grief is universal. At some point in everyone’s life, there will be at least one encounter with grief. It may be from the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, or any other change that alters life as you know it.
Grief is the reaction to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or some living thing that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, grief also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, cultural, spiritual, and philosophical dimensions.
You may be experiencing one or more kinds of loss related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some of the things that people are grieving currently. In many of these situations, uncertainty about how and when the situation will be resolved may complicate the grieving process and make the loss harder to work through than it otherwise would be.
- Loss of a loved one
- Loss of a job
- Loss of social connection
- Loss of or harm to relationships
- Academic loss
- Loss experienced by health care providers
- Loss of rituals and routines
- Loss of mental health support.
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross- a Swiss-American psychiatrist, wrote in her book “On Death and Dying” that grief could be divided into five stages. Her observations came from years of working with terminally ill individuals.
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
Not everyone will experience all five stages, and you may not go through them in this order.
Everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time. Some people recover from grief and resume normal activities within six months, though they continue to feel moments of sadness. Others may feel better after about a year.
- How can we be recovering from grief?
- You can follow this tip to deal with your sorrow and grief: –
- 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 (friends and family members).
- Support yourself emotionally by taking care of yourself physically.
- Don’t put time-limits on your grief.
- Seek out the right kind of social support.
- Take self-care seriously.
We can support our self through doing some Spiritual activities that are meaningful to us—such as praying, meditating…e.g.,
If your grief feels like too much to bear, find a mental health professional with experience in grief counseling. An experienced therapist can help you work through intense emotions and overcome obstacles to your grieving.
Written By Gamila Ahmed
For more on grief see our other post : Effects of grief
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