Grief and Bereavement

Losing someone you love is very painful. After a significant loss, you may experience all kinds of difficult and surprising emotions, such as shock, anger, and guilt. Sometimes it may feel like the sadness will never go away. While these emotions can be very painful, they are normal reactions to loss and experiencing them is a necessary part of healing.

There is no right or wrong way to grieve. Everyone grieves differently, but there are healthy ways to cope and heal from the pain.

Trying to ignore your pain or keep it from surfacing will only make it worse in the long run. It’s necessary to face your grief and actively deal with it.

Feeling sad, frightened, or lonely is a normal reaction to loss. You don’t need to protect your family and friends by putting on a brave front. Showing your true feelings can help both them and you. Crying doesn’t mean you are weak, and it isn’t the only way to feel or express pain. Just because you aren’t crying, doesn’t mean that you are not feeling the pain just as deeply as others.

There is no right or wrong time frame for grieving. How long it takes will differ from person to person.

There are five stages of grief, although not everyone will experience all five stages.

• Denial: “This just isn’t happening!”
• Anger: “It’s not fair! Why did this have to happen?”
• Bargaining: “I promise to…… if you make this not real”
• Depression: “I don’t want to do anything but sit here!
• Acceptance: “I understand, it’s sad but I can accept this.”

Some people resolve their grief without going through any of these stages. If you do go through these stages of grief, you won’t necessarily experience them in this order, so don’t worry about what you “should” be feeling or which stage you’re supposed to be in.

Grief is very personal and as individual as we are.