A little girl by the name of Sally was always known as a happy young girl always by the side of her grandmother. They both lived a happy life, until Sally’s grandmother grew very ill. That day was the one where she lost her grandmother, the one person she thought she would never lose. Sally changed from the once happy little girl to one that never seemed to smile, looking pale and fragile. She avoided human contact and now was known as the girl made of skin and bones after she lost her weight from not eating and spending her days crying. She was experiencing the results of the death of a loved one, grieving over her once lively grandmother. Sally, as well as many others, never expected to lose somebody with such high importance to suddenly …show more content…
The first common problem people seem to encounter is a cycle going between different emotions, some going from crying to anger or others from sadness to a feeling of guilt. "While you are grieving, your emotional life may be unpredictable and unstable. You may feel that there are gaps in your remembered experience…. You may alternate between depression and euphoria, between wailing rage and passive resignation.... If you've experienced loss and are hurting, it's reasonable that your responses will be unreasonable.” (Alla Reneé Bozarth, Ph.D) A very common sign among people who had recently lost a loved one has been loss of sleep, or trouble keeping awake and making it through the day (Physical and Emotional 1). A loss of sleep causes the mind to feel exhausted and causing the person to not keep focus on one task at a time, and at most times affecting the person’s regular routine of daily chores or tasks and making them feel more difficult or become more challenging (Noel …show more content…
One must remember that a death will never leave the mind, but a person can ease back into normal life without dealing with harsh changes in emotional and physical states for more than a couple of years (Noel 1). "Loss is understood as a natural part of life, but we can still be overcome by shock and confusion, leading to prolonged periods of sadness or depression. The sadness typically diminishes in intensity as time passes, but grieving is an important process in order to overcome these feelings and continue to embrace the time you had with your loved one." (Katherine Nordal). It is always natural to go through different recovery stages, as it is naturally common to have random times of grief or sadness after returning to one’s normal life schedule. A common way of overcoming a death is to seek professional help from a psychologist, a trained professional who helps people through rough times in one’s life. If getting a psychologist is too much money for one to spend, groups of people in communities come together to help people going through problems by listening and being there for one’s needs and helps them overcome (Nordal 1). Some communities don’t have support groups, so the best way to overcome a death is to spend time with friends and family. Social interaction keeps one’s mind busy and distracted, helping a person overcome a death faster in a healthy
The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with their grief differently, there is one common denominator: the reaction of one affects all.
All over the world and every walk of life, people experience the loss, and mourning as part of the normal life. Mourning usually occurs as a response of loss of relationship with the person, people or even animals with whom you are attached to such as death of a loved one, terminal illness, loss of your pets and animals. There are five stages of the normal grieving process: denial or isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance; the grieving process
Grieving, this word could bring up a millions thoughts, and a whole bunch of memories for one person. Nobody likes to think about the end stage of life, or talking about the passing of a beloved family member, friend, or acquaintance. That this life that we breathe and live everyday will eventually come to an end.
It is common for those experiencing grief to deny the death altogether. Many people do this by avoiding situations and places that remind them of the deceased (Leming & Dickinson, 2016). However, by simply avoiding the topic of death and pain, the mourner only achieves temporary relief while in turn creating more permanent lasting agony (Rich, 2005). In this stage, mourners will begin to feel the full weight of the circumstance. Whether the death of a loved one was sudden or long-term, survivors will feel a full range of emotions, such as sadness, guilt, anger, frustration, hopelessness, or grief. While many of these emotions can cause serious suffering, it is important for the survivor to feel whatever emotions come up and deal with those feelings, rather than trying to suppress any
To locate a grieving support group, connect with local hospitals, hospices, community centers, funeral homes, and counseling centers (Smith, 2014). The second positive coping method is taking care of one’s needs. The burden of losing a loved one can devastate both body and mind. Caring for one’s physical and emotional needs, will make the make the heavy weight of bereavement, a lighter load. One important step in taking care of one’s self is to battle fatigue and hardship with exercising daily, and eating healthy.
Individually, everyone has their own methods of dealing with situations and emotions regardless of any positive or negative connotation affixed to them. One prime example of this comes with grief. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book “On Death and Dying” suggests that there are five stages of mourning and grief that are universal and, at one point or another, experienced by people from all walks of life. These stages, in no particular order, are as follows: Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and finally Acceptance. Each individual person works through these stages in different orders for varying levels of time and intensity, but most if not all are necessary to “move on.” In order for positive change to occur following a loss, one must come to terms with not only the event but also themselves.
I looked around at everyone in the room and saw the sorrow in their eyes. My eyes first fell on my grandmother, usually the beacon of strength in our family. My grandmother looked as if she had been crying for a very long period of time. Her face looked more wrinkled than before underneath the wild, white hair atop her head. The face of this once youthful person now looked like a grape that had been dried in the sun to become a raisin. Her hair looked like it had not been brushed since the previous day as if created from high wispy clouds on a bright sunny day.
I have had the privilege to walk alongside many people on their grief journeys. Throughout my thirty years of assisting others, I have developed a model of grief processing I call the Berafian Model. This model allows me an opportunity to work with various ages as well as cultural backgrounds.
It is not easy to cope after a loved one dies. There will be lots of mourning and grieving. Mourning is the natural process you go through to accept a major loss. Mourning may include religious traditions honoring the dead or gathering with friends and family to share your loss. (Mallon, 2008) Mourning is personal and may last months or years.
Everyone has or will experience a loss of a loved one sometime in their lives. It is all a part of the cycle of life and death. The ways each person copes with this loss may differ, but according to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s novel On Death and Dying, a person experiences several stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and, finally, acceptance. There is no set time for a person to go through each stage because everyone experiences and copes with grief differently. However, everyone goes through the same general feelings of grief and loss. There are also sections in Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” that connect to the process of grieving: “On Pain,” “On Joy and Sorrow,” and “On Talking.” Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” reflects on Kübler-Ross’s model of the different stages of grief and loss.
People cope with the loss of a loved one in many ways. For some, the experience may lead to personal growth, even though it is a difficult and trying time. There is no right way of coping with death. The way a person grieves depends on the personality of that person and the relationship with the person who has died. How a person copes with grief is affected by the person's cultural and religious background, coping skills, mental history, support systems, and the person's social and financial status.
Every griever is incomparable, many factors can influence the way each individual cope and heals and that
After such a loss, a person may experience normal feelings of grief for a few months (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). When the feelings becoming debilitating and chronic, they may be symptoms of complicated grief, sometimes referred to as traumatic. Symptoms of complicated grief include extreme focus on the loss, intense longing for the deceased, problems accepting the death, detachment, preoccupation with your sorrow, bitterness about your loss, inability to enjoy life, depression, trouble carrying out normal routines, withdrawing from social activities, feeling that life holds no meaning or purpose, irritability or agitation, and lack of trust in others.
Isolation becomes a key component in that process. Growing up the child will isolate themselves from their family. Families are a constant reminder of the grief that is inside of the child due to the loss of their parent. That heartache is the very thing that the child wants to forget. Therefore, the child will evade all costs to bring up the deceased parent. Whenever I visited my family, I would deter from the conversation whenever my father was brought up into the conversation. Simultaneously, the fear of losing another family member will always be prevalent in the child’s life. Every medical scare will impact the child even deeper, because of this fear. It takes a lot of courage and strength to overcome the grief and the fear of being vulnerable again. With time comes acceptance. Gradually opening oneself up to others will not just make the child face their emotions, but learn to accept the death of their parent. Surrounding oneself with the family that the child once distanced themselves from will make more sense of the emotions coursing through their mind. Sharing stories, looking at old photographs, and even watching old home videos will assist the child to become more comfortable with the topic of the parent and even aid the child to appreciate the time spent with
There is no time line on how long you grief over someone passing away. The more significant the death is, like suicide the more intense the grief will be. For you to be able to fully get over a loved one you need to show feelings. It’s very important that you understand there is no right and wrong when it comes to losing someone special. Another example is, after you loose someone you’ll want to be alone, however, it is very important you gather support from friends and family you’ll need them by your side. While the pain of your loss is real and will be felt by many, there is going to be a time where you need to start living your life again.