Everyone will experience grief at some point in life. You might lose a loved one. You might get fired from a job you enjoyed. Grief can even happen due to the loss of a relationship, or a divorce.
While most people understand that grief can take a toll on your emotional health, it can also go far beyond that.
Grief can do so much more than just make you feel sad. It can lead to depression, anxiety, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and so much more.
Let’s dig deeper into how grief impacts well-being and health. We’ll also cover what you can do to fight back against the effects of grief, so you can keep moving forward.
The Damaging Impact of Grief
Grief can completely take over your mind after you lose something. This is often referred to as acute grief. It occurs during the first few months after a loss, and while it might eventually go away, it can preoccupy your time and your thoughts to the point where it impacts your quality of life.
This kind of grief can create waves of sadness. You might think about what you lost more often than not. While reflecting on happy memories can be a good thing, they can quickly turn negative when you start to yearn for them to be real again.
When you’re preoccupied with grief, your mind and body feel it, too. Grief can cause sleeping and eating changes, aches and pains, and even digestive issues. Your feelings might start to change, too. It’s not uncommon to feel everything from guilt to anger. Some people dealing with grief might have extreme outbursts of sadness and crying. Others might be very irritable and quick to “snap” at the people around them.
Long-Term Issues
You’ve likely heard of the stages of grief. There’s no timeline when it comes to working through them as long as you’re consistently moving forward.
But, some people deal with persistent grief. This occurs when you experience the symptoms of a loss for longer than twelve months. The mental and physical effects of grief can take a toll on your mind and body. Dealing with them for more than a year can create lasting health problems. It can even increase your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
Needless to say, this kind of grief also takes a toll on your quality of life. You might find yourself withdrawing from people you love. You might not be interested in things you were once passionate about.
Persistent grief can harm relationships, careers, and so much more. Unfortunately, it often creates a sort of vicious cycle. The deeper you fall into long-term grief, the more other things in your life can start to crumble, creating even more stress and depression.
What Can You Do?
Don’t be ashamed of your grief. A loss isn’t something you simply need to “get over” quickly, no matter what anyone tells you.
However, if you’ve been dealing with the effects of grief for a long time and they’re negatively impacting your life, it might be time to reach out for help.
Therapy is often the best way to learn how to process and manage your grief. A therapist can help you better understand where it’s coming from. Even if the loss seems obvious, there might be more beneath the surface that you’re holding onto. Digging into that can help you release any underlying issues so you can find freedom from your sadness.
If grief has started to impact your well-being and health, don’t handle it alone. Feel free to contact us to set up an appointment or reach out for more information for grief counseling.