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Grief is often described as an emotional roller coaster. There is so much depth and variety to the emotions experienced and each person's experience will differ. There is a whole page on this website dedicated to what emotions you can expect during grief.
People often do not react to a death or other loss in the way we expect them to. Often they do not know how to react so they react badly. People may say the wrong thing without meaning to. Often they don't know what to say or do so they say or do nothing at all. Often we want support from those close to us but we don't get it. However, often people we do not expect support from step up when we least expect it and are there for us when we need it.
Stacking is the concept of piling issues on top of each other. In our prior lives, these things might not have bothered us so much, but while in grief they are stacked and become so much bigger. The bigger the stack, the bigger each item on the stack becomes. The mole hills become insurmountable mountains while we are learning to hop. It is the fact that we are hopping that makes these things seem much larger than they would have in our pre-grief life.
Leaking is when you just can't hold the tears in. You are not full blown crying, you just can't hold it all in. This happens when you encounter triggers or are having a bad day. It is okay to be leaking. It happens to most of us from time to time.
Bunny hops are just what they sound like... the dance... you take two steps forward and one step back. Learning to hop often feels this way. You have two good hours and then a wave hits and you have a bad hour. You have two good days and then a bad day. While you are making progress moving forward, sometimes it feels like you are regressing backwards. It is easy to loose sight of the fact that you really are moving forward, learning to hop and making progress.
Substantial grief can cause vision changes. It can make us loose focus or change our focus. These changes can be temporary or they can be permanent. For example, a change in focus of not caring about your appearance is usually temporary but a change in focus to spend more time with family and less at work is often permanent. There is no right or wrong when it comes to focus or vision changes.
People often prey on others who are down. Be careful. There are many who will take advantage of someone who is grieving, often pretending to be a friend. We may even be used to the person who died being our caretaker, voice of reason, devil's advocate, advisor or protector, so we need to proceed extra cautiously as we learn to fill this role ourselves or find someone to lean on whom we can truly trust. We are also more vulnerable at this point and highly susceptible to manipulation.
Depending on how the death occurred or what happened prior to it, there can be trauma involved. If you feel you have post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or severe trauma of any kind, please seek medical attention. There is no shame in doing so. Ask for help