Bereavement
Bereavement is the emotional reaction felt or experienced after the death or loss of someone or something you were strongly emotionally attached to.
Bereavement and/or grief can have a huge impact and can potentially decimate the dynamic of your life. It can alter what you believe in, your outlook on life, your personality and even your entire sense of reality.
Everyone deals with loss and grief differently. There is no certain amount of time to adjust to the loss you have endured, and there is no right or wrong way to do so. Grief is a very normal human reaction to any kind of loss, and the effects of any loss can surface in many different ways: whether that be anger, self-isolation, denial, or becoming reckless and acting out of character. Bereavement can also lead to mental health issues, such as depression, which are more serious and can be difficult to overcome.
Grief can be a trigger for other underlying issues that you may have previously been able to cope with. However the intense experience of grief may cause these issues to become overwhelming.
It is perfectly normal to experience these reactions to loss:
- Poor appetite
- Insomnia
- Preoccupation
- Sense of worthlessness
- Anger
- Frustration
- Sense of helplessness
However, if these symptoms persist and you find your ability to cope with life has diminished it might be a good idea to seek help before your grief reaches a point where you feel you can’t manage with your daily life. Consider contacting your GP or a counsellor.
Useful Articles
Here's a list of articles on bereavement you might find helpful.
Two Big myths about grief
In this column, we confront two common misconceptions about grief. The first is that the bereaved inevitably experience intense symptoms of distress and depression. The second is that unless those who have experienced the death of a loved one “work through” their feelings about the loss, they will surely experience delayed grief reactions, in which strong emotions may be triggered by events unrelated to the loss, even long after it occurred. As we will show, neither belief holds up well to scientific scrutiny.
How Grief Works
Whether this intense sorrow is caused by the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a pet, miscarriage or some other unfortunate occurrence, it's an emotion that varies in duration and intensity from person to person. In short, there is no easy way to "cure" grief. Instead, psychologists believe that the grieving process must be allowed to run its course over time.
Different types of bereavement
Grief is a natural response to losing someone you love and cherish. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, and everyone experiences it differently. The important thing is to allow yourself to grieve and mourn as much and as long as you need to. Although grieving is intensely painful, in time these feelings begin to change as we adapt to a different way of life. Grief can never be fixed, diminished or taken away. It becomes part of our life story, and shapes how we live the rest of our lives.
How soon is too soon to find love after bereavement
It is an age-old - and delicate question – but set to become ever more pressing as life expectancy reaches unprecedented levels: how soon is too soon for someone recently widowed to consider a new partner?
What to do about work when you are grieving
We discuss what both employer and employee should do to make the situation that little bit easier.
Recommended Reading
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why
In Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales combines hard science and powerful storytelling to illuminate the mysteries of survival, whether in the wilderness or in meeting any of life's great challenges.
Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience
Drawing on cases across a range of life-threatening experiences, Laurence Gonzales makes a compelling argument about fear, courage and the adaptability of the human spirit.
A Grief Observed
A Grief Observed comprises the reflections of the great scholar and Christian on the death of his wife after only a few short years of marriage. Painfully honest in its dissection of his thoughts and feelings, this is a book that details his paralysing grief, bewilderment and sense of loss in simple and moving prose.
Helpful articles often written by our fabulous practitioners.