How Grief Affects Our Entire Self

Grief Affects Our Entire Self:

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Physical:

• Exhaustion
• Sleep issues: either sleeping too much or sleeping too little
• Eating too much or not eating at all
• Tightness in your throat – feeling like something is stuck in your throat
• Decreased energy or motivation, lack of strength
• Feeling of Emptiness, feelings of apathy, lack of motivation
• Nervousness, anxiety and/or heart palpitations
• Shortness of breath
• Stomach aches – GI issues
• Headaches
• Anxiety, agitation, tension or you may experience lethargy
• Grief can lower your resistance to getting various flu’s, colds, etc.

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Emotional:

Feelings are feelings. We experience them and they are often unpredictable, especially in grief. They come and go. They are part of the normal experience of grief.

• Anxiety, anger, disbelief, panic
• Fear, distrust, emptiness, hopelessness
• Sadness- tearfulness, despair, yearning, depression,
• Abandonment, helplessness, loneliness, emptiness,
• Guilt, self-reproach, relief
• Shame, sense of failure

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Behavioral Response to Grief:

• Dreams of the decease
• Social withdrawal
• Disorganization
• Poor concentration
• Avoidance of things/places
• Treasuring object of the decease
• Loss of interest in activities
• Lack of feeling or motivation
• Hypersensitivity or Irritability
• Regression in behaviors
• Hostile or Aggressive Behaviors
• Visiting special places

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Thoughts Related to Grief:

• Preoccupation with death
• Sense of deceased’s presence
• Personal Death Awareness
• Suicidal ideation
• Why???
• “If (s) he loved me, (s) he wouldn’t have died and left me”
• “Will my family survive?” “Will my marriage survive?”
• “What’s going to happen to me?”

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