Some of the many types of grief:
- anticipatory grief
- ambiguous grief
- disenfranchised grief
- grief over secondary losses
- grief for places from your past
- grief over a future you thought you’d have
Some of the many myths about grief:
- There will be an endpoint.
- Grief follows a predictable timetable.
- Time heals all wounds.
- You can only grieve a death.
- You can’t grieve something you never had.
- The first year is the hardest.
- Children don’t grieve.
- Grief is the same as depression.
- Grief is a single emotion.
- Certain types of loss are inherently easier or harder to bear than others.
Grief is a natural emotion that all people feel following any major change in their life, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, or retirement. Recovery from alcohol, drug and food addictions can also lead people to grieve, as they must cope with the loss of a habit that has consumed so much of their energy. We all grieve for losses in the emotionally significant relationships in our lives.
Thus, grief is a normal reaction to loss that every person will experience at some point in his or her life. How each person copes with loss is completely unique, so the time needed for and the impact of the grieving process are impossible to measure. The grieving journey is one of the most misunderstood and avoided life processes in our society today. Because we do not understand the normal symptoms and process of grief, nor do we know to respect the demands that the grieving process places on us, we can underestimate grief’s toll on our lives, and paradoxically, become stuck in unresolved mourning. Counseling can help you face and move through the intense feelings of grief so that you do not feel so isolated or mired in pain.