You have no appetite. Or, when you do manage to eat, you experience digestive problems. Your sleep patterns have become disordered. You find it hard to concentrate or stay focused on essential tasks. One minute you can be smiling and happy; the next, you are crying for your loss.
The symptoms listed above are just a few experienced by those who are grieving.
Grieving can happen for many reasons, not only the loss of a loved one. Relationship breakups, moving away from family and friends, a change in career, and other life changes like graduation and marriage.
Anytime you are moving away from something or someone, you can experience grief. Some people grieve for a day or two; others grieve for weeks or months.
Many think grief is a single emotion when in reality, it is much more than that.
What Is Grief?
Grief is a process that is experienced differently by individuals, based on a multitude of factors. Factors influence how we think, feel, and behave. To experience grief, you must have first created a bond with something or someone. Examples include parent-child relationships, pets, or bonds with your co-workers.
Grief is a reaction to the loss of such a bond. The way each person reacts to a loss will be different and in their own time. There are some effects to watch out for, however.
Physical Effects of Grief
Soon after your loss, you may enter a state of shock. You may feel an emptiness, numbness, or anxiety. Some describe it as feeling like they have a knot in their stomach. Other physical effects of grief include the inability to concentrate fully.
It is recommended that tasks that require extreme focus, like driving, should be avoided. If you aren’t able to concentrate, your reaction times may be slower. Or, if you are crying, tears can interfere with your vision.
The effects of grief can worsen symptoms of chronic diseases. The body is so complex that when grieving, your brain can signal your body to feel aches and pains even if they are not real.
Often, those grieving may use food as a way to cope. Emotional eating provides a slight rise in dopamine temporarily. To continue that rise, you must continue eating. This can lead to weight gain. Others grieving over a loss may lose their appetite altogether, and their weight will drop, sometimes too low.
Effects of Grief on Sleep
Grief can interrupt your sleep patterns. Some find it hard to fall asleep; some find it hard to stay asleep. Others struggle with both. Without restorative sleep, you will feel fatigued, low energy, and your immune system can weaken. You may find you are always fighting infections.
However, sleeping too much does not give you restorative sleep, and it can harm your body. While grieving, you may feel like staying in bed all day, but this will only make you feel worse.
Being unable to manage your emotions related to grief can lead to a grief disorder.
Types of Grief Disorders
If you find your grief symptoms are lingering and interfering with your ability to function at work and home, you may have a grief disorder. Disorders related to grief are treatable, and with help from a mental health professional, you can quickly overcome the obstacles preventing you from moving forward.
Prolonged grief disorder refers to struggling with grief for more than six months without success. You have not made progress in your healing and may still be feeling shocked, dazed, numb, or unable to accept the loss.
If your symptoms continue to appear after 12 months, you may be diagnosed with complicated grief disorder. With this condition, you continue to stay in a heightened state of mourning for a year or longer. You can’t stop thinking about the loss, your functioning at work and home is impaired, and other grieving effects have not improved.
Complicated grief disorder appears a lot like major depression.
Working with a licensed individual therapist is crucial for overcoming grief disorders but can be just as beneficial even for someone who is not struggling through the grief process. It’s okay to get help in overcoming grief. You can learn helpful tips on how to process your grief, heal, and continue to live a happy, productive life.
How to Overcome Grief
Besides working with a counselor, there are many other activities you can do to help your overcome grief. First, understand that overcoming grief does not mean you will forget the person or thing you lost. Instead, you can find ways to cope, celebrate the person you lost, or learn lessons from a relationship that ended.
When something ends in your life, something new begins.
Don’t stuff your feelings and try to appear stronger than you are while grieving. Acknowledge your emotions, and when you can, find ways to talk about your loss with others. Everyone has experienced loss. Sharing can help others heal too.
Even if you feel like staying in your pajamas and hiding out in your home all day, don't; you must keep moving. Go to work, clean your house, do the laundry, and complete all regular daily routines. Find time to exercise, preferably outdoors. Even a stroll around the block will give you time to process your thoughts and clear your mind.
What you eat while grieving matters. Eat foods full of vitamins and minerals to help you cope with the physical symptoms of grief. High saturated fats and sugars will only increase negative symptoms. Also, don’t place expectations on yourself that are unrealistic. Avoid comparing yourself to others who may be grieving.
Finally, get support. Grief support groups exist and are created to help anyone struggling with loss. You have the opportunity to speak to others who truly understand what you are going through.
You can overcome the physical symptoms of grief. Losing someone or something is hard, but it does not mean you cannot be happy and prosperous, both of which you deserve.