Could I Be Grieving and Not Know It?
We grieve all loss, not just the death of a close loved one. Unfortunately, this fact is frequently overlooked. The result is that if/when we are experiencing feelings of stress, sadness, anger, frustration, helplessness, hopelessness, confusion, short temper, euphoria, depression, physical or emotional pain… or maybe we just can’t put our finger on it… We miss the connection between what we are experiencing and a past or present loss. Which means that we can be grieving and not even realize it. Sadly, missing this connection can keep us stuck in a pothole of unresolved grief. The good news is that the first step for healing or for climbing out of a pothole of unresolved grief is realizing that we are in fact grieving. The following list, even though incomplete, is helpful for identifying grief triggers.
Grief: Life Events That Can Be Triggers
- Death of your spouse
- Death of your life partner
- Death of your betrothed
- Death of your child
- Death of your sibling
- Death of a parent
- Death of a stepparent
- Death of a family member
- Death of a close friend
- Death of former spouse/partner
- Death of a co-worker
- Death of your pet
- Death of your business
- Your divorce
- Your parents’ divorce
- Your child’s divorce
- Parent remarrying
- Marriage of child
- Your remarriage
- Loss of employment
- Change in work responsibilities
- Job relocation
- Retirement
- Negative change in your health
- Negative change in a loved one’s health
- Loved one in Hospice
- Legal issues
- Incarcerated
- Change in financial state
- Foreclosure
- Empty nest
- Adult child moving back home
- Adult child with failure to launch
- Rejection by in-laws
- Selling your home
- Abandoned by parents/family
- Your placement in Foster Care
- Your parents Parental Rights terminated
- Your child placed in Foster Care
- Your parental rights terminated
- Foster Child returned to biological parent(s)
- Foster Child adopted into another family
- Loss of trust
- Loss of safety
- Placing your child for adoption
- Your grandchild placed for adoption
- Closed adoption
- Open adoption
- Disabled child—Loss of the dream(s) you had for your child
- Changing churches
- Changing schools
- Moving to a different home
- Abortion—Forbidden Grief
- Medical personnel grieving the loss of a patient(s).
- First responder grieving the loss of an accident victim(s).
- Students grieving the loss of a fellow student(s).
- Wanted change
- COVID-19 Lock Down and related consequences
- Loss of freedom
The list is never ending according to the Grief Recovery Method because we grieve all loss. However, what is a significant loss for one person may not be significant loss for another person. Just as the intensity and duration of the pain and emotional upheaval varies from person to person and from loss to loss.
Check out the Blog post Normal Grief Reactions for more details.
Figuring all this out is the hard work of grieving and healing which is why we wrote this book. We wrote this book for you so that you don’t have to figure out and learn things the hard way like we did. Order your copy today.
Amazon: Grieving Forward, Death Happened, Now What?
