You can experience grief after losing a loved one, changing jobs or moving to a new city or experiencing a breakup. With grief, you may feel intense emotional upheaval, sadness, instability, shock, anger or even guilt. These feelings are all very normal and a healthy part of getting through a loss or severe change.
Symptoms
If you are grieving, you may be experiencing many different symptoms. The most common symptoms, according to Medline Plus, are anger, feeling numb, blaming others, bargaining, depression, sadness and crying. The Help Guide notes that grieving can also cause physical symptoms, such as fatigue, insomnia or nausea, and can cause you to lose or gain weight.
Normal Is Relative
Grieving is a natural part of life as every person encounters loss and change along the way. While there are certain elements of grieving that may be the same, all people deal with their losses differently since all losses have different circumstances. Other factors for healing from loss include your faith, personality or life experience. There is no set time for a grieving person to heal, and healing will take time.
Five Stages of Grief
Though all people grieve differently, there are five widely recognized stages of grief. These stages can happen in any order and for any duration of time. You can even flip between stages within mere seconds. These stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Acceptance is not the same as "being okay" with a loss, but rather is the point at which you realize the loss has happened and you cannot change it. Acceptance marks an upward turn in grief.
Complicated Grief
For some, grief can turn especially life altering. According to the Mayo Clinic, people who have complicated grief have symptoms that are extremely severe and debilitating, leaving them unable to go on with life. Examples of this include feeling like life is not worth living, an extreme focus on the loved one or situation that has been lost or detachment from feelings or life. Often, complicated grief comes after a difficult and unexpected loss or trauma. Complicated grief can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts or substance abuse.
Coping with Grief
Grief is normal and should be expected and respected when a loss has occurred. You can help speed along your grieving process by seeking help and support from family, friends and other loved ones. Grief counselors may be especially helpful, as well as clergy and faith-based support groups. You can also help yourself by committing to engaging in healthy behaviors such as getting plenty of sleep, regular exercise and eating healthy foods.
