Grieving

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When someone important to you dies, you grieve. When you have any loss, you need to grieve the disappearance from your life. There is a tremendous need for grieving people to talk, to search for meaning and to try to make sense out of what has happened and what is happening. Grief, however it may enter your life, often causes havoc.

 

Grief is pain. It hurts. It can cause frightening physical and emotional symptoms. It can cause intense stress in families. Most people feel strong often mixed emotions after a death or loss. These may come and go, like waves washing over you. The intensity of your emotions can be new for you, perhaps frightening or overwhelming.

 

In the beginning you may be in shock. You are bewildered and literally stunned. It may cause temporary loss of memory or confused thinking. You may have moments of denial when you think or feel as if it has not really happened. There may be numbness which allows you to do the things that are necessary. This may be followed by an array of emotions in no particular order. This may include emotions such as anger, depression, loneliness, sadness, guilt, crying, preoccupation, feeling lost, indifference, emptiness, outrage, helplessness and hopelessness. 

 

Grief is a normal reaction to loss.