You may experience any of the
following when you grieve:
- numbness, the sense
that none of this is real—you’re just imagining
it
- expecting your deceased
loved one to come back and be able to resume
life as usual
- experiencing your loved
one communicating with you after death
- difficulty paying
attention or remembering things as well as you
did before your loss
- a sense of anger,
injustice, vexation or helplessness about your
situation
- feelings of incredible
emptiness, loneliness, self-accusation or
despair
- guilt—if only you had
done more, been nicer, not left home, etc.
The following are typical
physical symptoms of grief:
- difficulty going to
sleep, or waking in the middle of the night
- weight loss or gain;
over- or under-eating
- low energy or fatigue
- headaches, chest pain
or racing heart
- upset stomach or
digestive problems
- hair loss
When you understand that
grieving people have similar thoughts, feelings and
physical sensations, you can be assured that what
you are going through is completely normal. For
example, mood swings (you feel fine one minute and
then all of sudden you burst out crying) need not
take you by surprise. What’s more, it is entirely
possible to have a decrease in symptoms for quite a
while and then suddenly experience a ‘relapse’ when
something reminds you of your loved one—or for no
explainable reason at all.
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