What is Loss and bereavement?
We all grieve. in a personal and individual way. Grieving and mourning have been conceived as the processes whereby the bereaved person adjusts to the reality of their loss. This enables them to disengage from the deceased and reinvest in the new. When feeling broken or lost, individuals may experience distress and emotional disturbances such as anxiety and anger, simultaneously.
The stages of mourning may include:
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression acceptance
- Numbing
- Yearning and searching
- Searching
- Disorganisation.
Bereavement is the experience of losing someone important to you. It is characterised by grief, the process and the range of emotions we go through as we gradually adjust to loss. Losing someone important can be emotionally devastating - whether a partner, family member, friend, or pet. A person or thing that is badly missed when lost by death or suicide can be incredibly traumatic for an individual. Alongside grief, we may experience feelings of guilt after the loss of someone from suicide because you may not have been aware of how they felt or might feel betrayed that that person did not reach out to you. Most bereaved people experience grief, which involves feeling many different emotions in response to the person's death.
There is no set pattern to grieve, and everyone will suffer in their own way. You may experience a plethora of feelings, or you may feel nothing. You may find it easy to talk or bottle all your emotions up. There are no rules in grief. Whatever happens, be kind to yourself and give yourself time to heal.
What the physical symptoms of grief may look like
- A hollow feeling in your stomach.
- Tightness, or heaviness, in your chest or throat.
- Oversensitivity to noise.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Feeling very tired and weak.
- A lack of energy.
- Dry mouth.
- An increase or decrease in appetite.
Losing someone is often a traumatising experience. These are all normal symptoms to experience, and we can learn to confront and overcome them.
