Defining Grief: Understanding Loss and Sorrow
Hello all, I hope you are all being easy on yourself.
This post is part of 2 Week's Group Support Event on Grief Awareness.
Grief is a complex and personal experience that affects everyone differently. So, the forum thread will be the space to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences about grief. Let's explore what grief means to you, and how we can better understand and support one another during loss.
What is grief?
Grief is a natural response to loss. It can be experienced in many different ways and at varying intensities.
I am sharing a few questions for this week's forum discussion on grief. Please feel free to share your thoughts on any or a few questions as per your comfort. Please include the question that you responding to so we can have a focused discussion.
Questions for discussion:
- Can you describe a time when you experienced grief? What did it feel like?
- How does grief differ from sadness?
- Are there different types of grief? If so, can you explain them?
- How does culture or religion influence our understanding of grief?
- What misconceptions about grief have you encountered?
- How can we create a more open and supportive environment for those experiencing grief?
Tagging a few friends for the discussion:
@marinsen, @summerkay2024, @Catunion, @jonghyunnie, @daydreammemories, @richvision, @mytwistedsoul, @communicativepond1728,
@reallyoverallofit, @tinywhisper11, @jaeteuk, @thoughtlight
- Can you describe a time when you experienced grief? What did it feel like? When my mother and grandmother died. It feels like your heart has been ripped out.
- How does grief differ from sadness? I think sadness you can explain a more direct reason for being sad where with grief it goes deeper and longer where eventually you can't really pick one particular reason since losing someone has changed you.
- Are there different types of grief? If so, can you explain them? Initial shock-grief and long-term-grief. Self explanatory.
- How does culture or religion influence our understanding of grief? I guess the thought that someone has gone to heaven is comforting, knowing you will eventually see them again.
- What misconceptions about grief have you encountered? That you should just "get over it" because it's been X amount of time.
- How can we create a more open and supportive environment for those experiencing grief? LISTEN.
@ASilentObserver
Can you describe a time when you experienced grief? What did it feel like?
I experienced grief earlier this year due to my dog passing away. It felt like I lost a part of myself as I had my dog since childhood.
How does grief differ from sadness?
Sadness is more of a feeling. While grief is more of an emotional response and dealing with loss that can take months to fully recover from.
Are there different types of grief? If so, can you explain them?
There are different types of grief complicated grief which it grief that can last a long time and chronic grief which is grief that can stop you from pursuing activities due to how severe the pain is.
How does culture or religion influence our understanding of grief?
In my culture, my family and I would celebrate the Day of the Dead to mourn the people in our lives who had passed away and gather things those people had loved and enjoyed
What misconceptions about grief have you encountered?
A misconception about grief that I have encountered is that we should "get over" the grief that we are feeling. This is a misconception because it is hard to recover and fully process the grief we experienced as we want to remember the people who had passed away who have shaped who we are. We are trying to keep their memory alive instead of "getting over" them.
How can we create a more open and supportive environment for those experiencing grief?
We can create a more open and supportive environment for those experiencing grief by having a support group mainly focused on grief for people to share how felt griefing for the person or animal they were close to so that people can understand the pain they're going through and ensure that they'll always have their memories to honor and remember them forever.