After you lose your best friend, how do you know when grieving them starts?

Grieving is a tough one because it's different for everyone. But the 5 stages of grief are real, you will just experience it at your own time. There really isn't a time for you to start grieving. But, for me someone actually had to tell me that I'm grieving. The first few emotions I felt were sadness, I couldn't stop crying for like a couple hours. My thoughts were everywhere because I was wondering if I had done enough with them and if I had said all I wanted to say. At the end of the day, I think when you start to reminisce about your memories with the person, you will know. Grief hurts, and it is not easy. Just know, you can take it at your own pace. My condolences on your loss.

The grieving begins when the loss of the friend is a fact, it is a reality that nothing can eliminate or change. When you already know that that person stopped breathing and its body no longer responds. It is there when it is inevitable and the grieving for the loss of the loved one begins.

Losing your best friend, whether the loss is unexpected (such as an accident) or something that was known (such as a terminal illness) is one of the hardest experiences in life. Grief can begin to set in when you notice yourself responding in some way to the realization that your person is gone. It can also begin when you realize that you will soon lose them. When grief begins, sometimes there is shock, numbness, a feeling of unreality, or even outright denial at first. When the realization sinks in, then you can start to feel a wide, wide range of other emotions. Sometimes you feel heavy, or feel like you have a hole in your heart, or you may experience fear, or find that you can't sleep. Whatever emotions you notice, they are okay to feel. They are your emotions and they're true for you. The important thing, when grieving someone's death, is not to avoid or run from your grief. Even though the emotions related to loss are painful and scary, they're natural, normal, and to be expected. If you find you cannot cope, then you might consider seeking professional resources or finding a grief and loss support group.

It is said that grief exists as a five level process - denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. You may experience grief in any one of these orders, there is no fixed hierarchy. Realize that grief is necessary upon the loss of a loved one. You should feel no shame in it. You may start with anger. Anger perhaps at society, friends, family, institutions, yourself or even the deceased. Denial can set in when your mind is yet to accept the reality of your best friend's absence. You may be carried away by activities you did together like drinking. Sometimes you may even say their name or get your phone to call them. Depression can come after because suddenly the world caves in on you and you feel the impact of the absence. You think about them constantly and feel overwhelmed with sadness. Bargaining follows and it is a different experience for everyone. I had an experience where I would say their name hard with my eyes closed believing they would at least appear before me if I concentrated. For you to regain control over your life you have to accept. To me it came as a resignation to reality. You find ourself letting go of the baggage and with time, you may come to terms with their absence.

I knew I was grieving my friend after we lost connection when I began to feel lost. I felt lost when I would do things that we used to do together. Redoing them on my own really helped me to form new memories and deal with the grief in a way I felt both honoured our friendship and that improved my mental health. I think another way I knew I was grieving was that I was sad more, and felt lonely without them. But I made sure to make stronger connections with people and form new friendships to help deal with my grief.

At a time like this, I know one can feel extremely emotionally vulnerable, but the shock may not allow all your emotions to properly register. Grieving is a very individualistic process, and never an easy one at that. These emotions will come in their time, and when they do, let them flow out of you and get it out of your system in a healthy way. In the same way no person has the exact experience that you're feeling, nobody should be able to tell you how to grieve - but that does not mean that you should feel unable to reach out for support from those around you; should you feel you have nobody in your circle to reach out to - well, we're all on this site for a reason, right? Don't be ashamed to reach out for a listening ear if you feel it'd help at all. No matter what you choose to do, just remember you are not alone in this 💛

When you feel a scream building up inside you, which no one can hear, that is grief. That terrible overwhelming urge to scream when you know nothing is going right and everything is going wrong and there is this huge gap or void in your life and the absence of a person, then you know you're grieving. when you start missing a person so much that every little thing around you starts reminding you of them, of their habits, their nuances, their memories, when you physically feel a pain in your chest and nothing and no amount of relief can make it go away that ia when you know, you're grieving.

You just know. You see them everywhere around you and yet nowhere. There is so much you'd want to tell them, but don't know how to. Grieving them begins the moment you realise that what was there, isn't anymore. At first there is just the knowledge of happening, and then there are those repeated tiny realisation that what actually has happened, it breaks your heart again and again. But the best part is, it gets easier. You don't heal from losing someone to death, I didn't. Instead, you learn to live with it, you learn to be happy with it. It is when you start remembering them as they deserve to be remembered, you know that you have finally been at peace at losing someone so important.

The grief for a loved one begins when you find yourself feeling low, for no apparent reason. Either your day doesn't start off with as much gusto as it may usually start, or you just find yourself feeling slightly more intune with your own emotions - and you don't really know what it is. It is only then when you pause and you start to reflect - you may realise that it's actually the loneliness or the distance between you and said friend that has caused you to feel that way. Grief would start when you catch yourself feeling distant from what you do, who you talk to without much of a trigger to make you feel so.

During the summer vacation, my friend and I had an argument, and we didn't speak a word for a long time after that. He has a lot of new friends and I feel like I've lost him. I was sad for a while, but I realized that having my family by my side made me feel better. After losing a friend, I focus my attention on meaningful things, I work hard to improve myself and prepare for my college, and the sad things get left behind. I also made very good friends. We are from the same hometown and live very close, but we didn't know each other until we came to the United States. He and I have a lot in common, and sometimes we play games together. All in all I think everything will get better and better things won't come if you don't experience something. Don't worry about the hardships of life, we have to solve the hardships, and we will become better.