How to Process Grief
Part I
Loss is inevitable and is part of the human condition. The death of a loved one is often distressing and can impact the affective, cognitive, behavioral, physiological/somatic, social, and economic aspects of a person’s life.
Grief refers to the process of experiencing reactions to one’s sense of loss (i.e., the emotional experience of a loss). It includes emotional and psychological processes (intrapsychic) that one experiences in response to loss. Grief can include a preoccupation with thoughts of the lost loved one, painful repetitious recollections of the loss experience, and attempts to make sense of the loss. High risk factors that can prolong grieving or cause trauma include suddenness and lack of anticipation, violence, human-caused event, suffering (physical or emotional) of the loved one prior to death, unnaturalness, preventability, intent of the responsible agent(s), randomness, multiple deaths, one’s own personal encounter with death, untimeliness, and the loss of one’s child.
Mourning encompasses grief and includes actively coping (i.e., outward expressions of grief) with the loss and reorienting oneself to adapt to the world without the deceased, which can be traumatizing. The reorientation occurs along the dimensions of the relationship to the lost loved one, one’s internal world, and the external world. For example, the deceased can be an attachment figure (e.g., parent or partner) that is a part of a person’s internal working model. Mourning is also based on the nature of the relationship, strength of the attachment, security of the attachment, ambivalence in the relationship, conflicts with the deceased, and dependent relationships. Moreover, mourning is mediated by historical antecedents (previous losses & mental health risks), social variables (emotional & social support, satisfaction with support, religious or spiritual resources, & ethnic/cultural practices and customs), and concurrent stressors (high levels of disruption). Bereavement is a broad term that typically describes the period following a loss when both grief and mourning occur.
~ Yamonte
