What To Do When You Experience Grief
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Getting through grief
- Everyone will experience grief of some sort at some point in life, after all, to love is to experience loss at some point, however, most people don’t have a clear understanding of what grief is about. In my work, as I help people during these painful process I often hear questions about what “healthy” grieving should look like, what is normal for them to feel, how long is it ok for someone to continue experiencing symptoms of grief.
- The word grief comes the French word “Grevere” which literally means “burden”, so grieving is carrying a heavy load. There are some common characteristics that are often used to describe the road through this process, people say it is painful, heavy, intense, there is a physical pain that accompanies the emotional one, it is exhausting and it can feel overwhelming. Given this list of symptoms, it is no wonder that people often try to cope with their grief by finding ways to avoid feeling it or avoid even thinking about these emotions, they look for ways to NOT experience them, anything from not thinking, not speaking about it, drinking or using other substances to help numb the emotions, throwing themselves into work, making drastic changes, anything and everything that helps them “move on”. Don’t get me wrong, we do want to move on, but not allowing our heart to heal is not the same as moving on.
- You can think of emotions as energy that needs to pass through, if you block emotions by pushing them away or trying to suppress them, it is like holding a ball under water, the ball does not go away or disappear, emotions will persist and find the first opportunity to jump back out with a great force.
- So what can we do in order to get through this experience or to help our loved one when they are the ones going through it.
Grief is real
- Don’t set a timeline: First, we must understand that everyone grieves differently and there is no set timeframe. One of the recurring complains that I hear is that people feel like those around them are wanting them to “get over it already”. Think of grieving as a multi layered process and each layer has a different duration, different intensity and different quality of emotion to it. Understand that a little piece of you has been lost and grief will stay with you for a long time however ,with the passing of time the intensity of that pain will recede. You will forever miss your loved one but the pain won’t feel unbearable anymore. Grief is a personal process and will be different for each one of us, it might take a longer or shorter time, it will have certain emotions for you that might not include for someone else.
- Accept your emotions: You can expect to feel many emotions you can also expect to feel anxious, experts have recently proposed that the 5 stages of grief –Denial, bargaining, anger, depression and acceptance- are missing anxiety, as they find it more descriptive of the experience that happens at some point in the grieving process. This anxiety happens in great measure because grief is uncomfortable and even perceived as threatening, people become anxious, the emotions can feel so overwhelming that people described feeling like they are afraid that they are going to be lost to them. When it comes to emotions, it is best to get curious about them, develop an interest, don’t try to suppress them, don’t judge them. Think of them as waves, when it breaks the impact feels very strong but they have a beginning, a middle and an end, this means that they will pass. It is helpful to try to describe them, name them, pay attention to where in my body am I experiencing them, and remember, if you allow it to be there, it will pass. Tears might last for five minutes or five hours, let them flow and they will stop.
- One note on the five stages of grief, don’t think of them in a linear way, just because you already experiences anger it does not mean that it won resurface later. Some people don’t experience all five stages, and some stay in a certain stage longer periods of time, I can not stress this enough, grief is a unique and personal process.
- Take care of yourself: Make sure you are taking care of yourself, this is a time where you will benefit from establishing certain rituals and systems to assure that you are eating well, you are sleeping as well as possible. Exercise is of great help, it allows your body to release helpful “happy” chemicals that will help in the healing process and they help burn out some of the emotions and energy. Don’t isolate yourself, even though you might feel like people around you are getting tired of your sorrow, more often than not, people say unhelpful things out of lack of knowing what to say, and out of their personal anxiety of seeing someone they care for in pain. Research has found that one of the variables that show greater impact in the recovery of trauma, grief, depression, etc., is having attachments, building community. There are support groups specific to grieving and bereavement, getting together with other people who understand your experience first hand and talking to them about this is very powerful.
- Take action, whether it is by reaching out for support from friends, a support group, personal therapy. Use this time for self reflection and growth. When we experience difficulties in life we also have the opportunity to experience growth. You might decide that you want to grow from your loved ones life and initiate something to honor their memory, it can be as simple as writing something about them, doing a creative piece in their honor, maybe giving to a charity that would have been significant to them, do it according to your circumstances and to what is meaningful for you.
- If you want professional support as you go through this process you can reach outto us if you are in San Diego, we can help find a good fit for your therapy needs.
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