Pets often become just like members of your family. They eat, sleep, play and love with you, and when they die, the grief process is often the same as if a person in your family passed away. Guilt, denial, anger and depression can all follow the...
The pain of losing a beloved pet that has been a companion and family member can be devastating, report counselors at PetLoss.net. The grief can be as strong as losing a close friend. Although nothing can take away the feelings that you experience...
Pets are often beloved members of a family, so it is normal to feel grief when one dies. The grieving process for a pet varies from individual to individual, according to the Humane Society. It may take only one day for some people and years for...
Your pet can sometimes seem like a member of your family, so it's natural to experience a grieving process after you lose your animal friend. While recovering from the loss of a pet, you may find that vocalizing your feelings, finding closure and...
The loss of a pet can be especially hard for a young child. In some cases, your child may not remember life without their beloved friend. When a family pet dies, it's important to validate your child's feelings and allow them to grieve in a...
The loss of a pet can be as painful as the loss of a human family member. The process of coming to terms with your loss can take anywhere from a few days to several years. Though everybody deals with grief differently, there are five stages that...
Pets provide us with companionship and unconditional love, and they become a constant presence in our lives. When a pet passes away, feelings of sorrow and grief are natural, but painful. Coping with the sorrow from the loss of a pet can seem like...
Coping with the death of a pet is never easy; it gets even more complicated when you have to explain death and dying to your children. For many children, the loss of a pet is their first experience with death and handling this loss appropriately...
People are expected to suck it up and move on quickly when a pet dies. After all, it was just a pet. To some people, however, a pet is an important member of the family. There is no scientific proof that everyone will experience all five stages of...
The death of a beloved family pet can be especially difficult for your toddler to understand. Your child may not know why the pet is no longer there to provide affection or offer a treat to. It's important to be honest and open with your toddler....
When a beloved pet dies, the entire family grieves; it's a natural reaction to a genuine loss. For children, however, the death of a pet is often their first exposure to death in general, and it can be very confusing and traumatic for them. As a...
The loss of a loved one can be devastating and the grief that follows can cause a constant ache that seems to linger eternally. Indiana University describes grief as an emotional response to loss. Anyone who has loved an animal understands that...
Bereavement in children is often ignored or dismissed as if it didn't exist, according to the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement. Parents often try to keep the truth away from children as well, thinking kids won't be able to deal with the...
Children can find it especially difficult to cope with the loss of a pet. Family pets often become a child's playmate, trusted confidant and overall best friend. The loss might also be your child's first significant experience with grief and the...
While the loss of a pet may seem small to someone else, when your pet dies, it can feel like you've lost a member of the family. As you grieve over the loss of your pet, you may find yourself experiencing the five stages of grief, as presented by...
Grieving is not a linear process. It comes in waves and can often crop up unexpectedly. Coping with grieving is an important process that can come up due to the loss of a pet, friend, family member or major life change, such as job loss or...
Children experience the same grief process as adults do. Whether over the loss of a pet or loved one, children experience sadness, anger and guilt. Age plays an important role in how death is processed and how grief affects each individual child....
Most people consider pets part of the family, and mourn an animal's death as much as a human's. Sometimes outsiders don't understand this. It's hard enough to cope with the death of your "child" without people asking when you're getting another...
Losing a pet is devastating for many people. The death of the animal can mean the end of a friendship, separation from a constant companion and the prospect of being alone. Learning to cope with the death of a pet is a process for which you will...
Everybody experiences times of sadness. It's normal to feel sad after a breakup, over the loss of a pet or during a sad movie. However, depression is a serious mental health issue that afflicts many people, causing them to have issues at work,...
Grief is a universal human emotion that follows the loss of something important. The most intense grief often follows the death of a loved one, but can also follow any loss, such as the loss of a pet, job or relationship, or as a response to a...
A wide array of factors---both physiological and psychological---can cause sleeping difficulties in children. Sleep deprivation, the end result of such difficulties, may pose a serious obstacle to your child's success in virtually every aspect of...
Disruptive behavior in school can lead to a myriad of problems for the teacher, school faculty and classmates. Differentiating between rude behavior and bad behavior is challenging. If bad behavior in school is continuous, your child may become...
Loss of a grandparent is often one of the first experiences children have with death of a family member. Some may already be familiar with the concept due to loss of a pet, while others may be totally unprepared when their grandmother dies. It can...
The death of a pet can be traumatic. You may feel extreme sorrow, along with guilt over the depth of your feelings, especially if people around you try to dismiss them as inappropriate. The Humane Society of the United States notes it is not...
Individuals experiencing distress and depression over traumatic life issues often feel lost and without hope. They find it difficult to know how to cope with hurt and pain of loss. Grief counseling is a form of compassionate therapy that endeavors...
Most people experience the death of a parent, spouse, lover, sibling, child, friend or pet at some point in their lives. Perhaps your loved one died of a chronic illness at the end of a long life and you were able to prepare yourself. Or maybe the...
The death of a family pet is a sad occasion, and you may be at a loss as to the best way to explain the event to children. PetPlace.com notes the death of a pet is often a child's first experience with loss; how you handle it can have a profound...
Everyone goes through some type of grieving process after a loss, no matter what their age. Kids may suffer losses like the death of a family member, friend or pet; loss of a parent through divorce or a move that takes them away from a familiar...
