Learn More About Grief
Grief is a normal reaction to loss and the life changes surrounding that loss. Common reactions that grieving people may experience include crying, feelings of sadness and depression, avoidance, shutting down, changes in sleeping patterns, and other physical effects of grief. Below you’ll find articles and resources to help you both understand and deal with feelings of grief.
Featured Grief Articles
Stages of Grief
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. More recently, grief experts have greatly expanded their models of grieving. Putting stages and other grief models aside, it’s important to know that there’s no right or wrong way to grieve and grief has no set timeline.
When people experience the death of a loved one or experience a significant loss, they grieve. Grief is an overwhelming universal series of emotions that touches us all.
Grief is a painful but normal part of the human experience. One model of grief categorizes this process into four unique stages–Shock and Numbness, Yearning and Searching, Disorganization and Despair, and Reorganization and Recovery. While this theory can help people better understand certain emotions and reactions commonly associated with grief, no two individual experiences of loss are exactly the same
Support Options for Grief
Grief counseling is a healthy way to grieve a loved one who has passed on while getting the support and direction from a mental health counselor.
If you are struggling with grief and find that it negatively impacts your ability to function at work or socially, grief therapy can help. It can benefit those who have experienced a sudden or traumatic loss and find themselves “stuck” in intense emotional pain and grief after their loss.
Grief includes the deep sorrow or intense emotional reactions a person experiences after a loss. Although every person processes grief differently, there are many ways to manage these intense and complex feelings. Coping with grief can include seeking and providing support, maintaining emotional self-care, and seeking therapy.
Types of Grief
Delayed grief, also referred to as complicated grief, is when someone pushes off their grief reaction rather than dealing with it right away. Grief counseling can help to understand the best ways to cope with, understand, and manage delayed grief.
Complicated grief tends to be persistent and lasts longer than what would be considered a normal amount of time for the grief process. This may occur after sudden, unexpected losses that are traumatic and more difficult to process.
Anticipatory grief is the grief process leading up to an expected loss, most typically a death. People coping with anticipatory grief may often feel anxious, fearful, worried, depressed, isolated, angry, or hopeless. Fortunately, there are many ways to cope with anticipatory grief, including talking with a therapist who specializes in grief and loss or bereavement.
More Articles About Grief
Each kid grieves differently, which is why grief counseling for children may vary from one child to another.
Although grief and mourning are often used interchangeably, there are distinct differences between them. Both terms describe how people cope with loss.
Losing a friend can be a devastating experience. Coping with such a loss may feel impossible, but there are healthy ways to heal and grieve. Acknowledging your feelings, adjusting to your new normal, or tapping into your religious or spiritual values can help as you mourn a friend.