Grief Support: Articles about grief info

This overview provides info about true and false notions about grief. One of the worst things about grief is how much bad information there is out there. Because of that, many people worry they are grieving incorrectly, or that someone they know is grieving incorrectly. Knowing something about what you or your loved one is going through can help normalize the process and prevent the worry: "Am I going Crazy?"  Check out this overview of Grief Basics. 

During early grief, everything is so different, it's hard to move forward. Daily life feels weird: even waking up or going to sleep is different; every single thing in every day feels disrupted by a loved one's absence.  This, too, is normal, though anything but easy. Here are suggestions for navigating daily life in early grief and for taking good care of yourself.  

Even though we grieve individually, there are, at least in a general way, phases to the grieving process. It's helpful to know what they are, so you have a general map of what grief might look like for you or someone you love.  Knowing what to expect can decrease anxiety and help normalize the thoughts and feelings you're experiencing.  An example, is a feeling of emotional numbness in early grief, and thoughts of, "This can't be real: He or she can't really be gone." Another example is reviewing what happened to lead to the death and thinking, "If only, I'd done this or not done that." "If only, he or she hadn't or the doctor hadn't..." These are examples of the process of how we grieve.  

Most people grieve physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The signs of grief, or what grief looks like, vary from person to person, and even for the same person over time. It's important to know how grief affects each of us and how much of what we experience while grieving is normal in the context of grief. Look here for a description of the signs of how grief affects us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.