Grief is a natural reaction to loss, accompanied by feelings of intense sorrow, sadness and loneliness. Coping with the loss of a loved one is a very big challenge for an individual. The grieving process can have a toll on the person’s physical and psychological health. Dealing with the death of a loved one is never really easy, it’s extremely difficult, undergoing time periods of sadness and loneliness. In this article, we’ll explore some tips for managing grief effectively, but first, let’s have a glance at the grieving process.

The Grieving process: Swiss American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969 gave 5 stages of grief. These stages are: –

  1. Denial: In this stage, the individual denies the whole situation and us not able to come in terms of the fact that they have lost someone or something bad has already happened. 
  2. Anger: This is the next stage, where the individual gets frustrated and irritated and they are undergoing the phase where they continuously ask themselves Why me? This is not fair ! Why everything bad happens to me ! 
  3. Bargaining: It’s the stage where people try to compromise and negotiate with the situation. 
  4. Depression: Once, the individual realise that certain things/situations can’t be negotiated, they fall deep into the sadness that’s accompanied with grief. 
  5. Acceptance: In the final stage, we finally accept the way things really are, we accept the bitter reality and try to make new changes around this new life. 

However, it’s necessary to keep in mind that grieving is a highly individualized process and there’s no perfect time when will you start feeling better. And plenty of research shows that people sometimes might not go through the stages as progressive steps. How you grieve depends on a lot of factors including your personality type, availability of social-emotional support etc. 

Ways to cope up with grief: 

Give yourself the space and time to grieve: Undergoing grief can result in having a wide range of emotions, from sadness to anger to frustration. It’s really very important that you keenly observe the changes in your emotions and give yourself the necessary space and time to grieve. It will take time, but eventually you’ll be able to accept the loss and the range of emotions accompanied by it. Allow yourself to feel those emotions, allow yourself to take some time, give yourself the permission to feel sadness, loneliness, anger, exhaustion. This will eventually help you to get out all the negative emotions out of your system. 

Don’t judge yourself: While grieving, a lot of us tend to judge ourselves, we go through phases where we regret saying or not saying certain things, for not being vocal about how much we loved and cared. It’s normal to feel all this way, but then grieving process itself is such a hard process, try not judging yourself and try to forgive yourself. It’s natural that processing the pain comes with a lot of regrets and some unfulfilled wishes and desires but try not to be hard on yourself and try to forgive yourself. 

Vent out through different means: It’s natural that not all of us have the same coping mechanisms and for some of us it’s difficult to talk to others about our grief. In that case, try out different creative outlets for expressing your grief. Try to write about the loved one or your loss, or you can maintain a journal or you can try to write a letter addressing them, in case you were not able to express to them how important they were to you. 

Seek social and emotional support from family and friends: During the grieving process, people tend to isolate themselves from others. However, it’s necessary to reach out to loved ones during this time. I do realise a lot of people don’t really know how to show their support to the grieving person, so try to be vocal about what you really need, if you want a shoulder to cry on, if you want some help with the funeral procession, or if you want to just talk about it. Also, research indicates that people recover from loss of a loved one if they have social support. So, try to be in connect with your loved ones during this period, you’ll be amazed by the emotional and social support you’ll get and how much you really need it. 

Try to have a routine: Maintaining a routine mind sound a bit odd but it will help you by giving you a sense of structure to your days. It will keep you connected with the familiar people and places. Maintaining a routine would help you maintain a sense of normalcy, giving you a sense of security and thereby reducing any further stress. 

Take care of yourself: The grieving process can be exhausting both emotionally and physically. Try to eat healthy, get sleep, do workout, journal, try maintaining those hobbies. Taking care of yourself is very essential during this period. 

Join a support group: Support groups give you a chance to vent out your feelings, emotions, thoughts without the fear of judgement. Group members provide each other with social, emotional support, guidance, a shoulder to cry on, practical suggestions and in a way validate your grief. They let you know that you are not alone. 

In case you feel like any of the above things aren’t working for you and feel that you are always sad and hurting and are unable to cope with it, try consulting a psychologist or a counselor. Mental health professionals are trained to help people deal with grief and can help you navigate your way through anger, sadness and loneliness. 

    Contributor

    Facebook Comments

    Comments to: Dealing with Grief

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Attach images - Only PNG, JPG, JPEG and GIF are supported.

    Latest Post

    Trending