Grief, Grieving, and Guilt

Losing a loved one is one of the most traumatic experiences anyone can face. Grief is the natural response to loss. The stages of grief are: denial or disbelief, anger and blaming others, bargaining, depression, and eventually, acceptance. Not everyone experiences all these stages, nor does everyone experience them in a particular order. Some people go through crying spells and trouble sleeping. Others are less productive at work. Studies show that the most painful phase of grief usually lasts up to 2 months, with milder phases lasting a year or longer.

Coping with grief can involve seeing mental-health specialists, seeking spiritual guidance through clergy, or joining support groups. A healthy grieving process involves staying active not to ignore one’s feelings, but to ensure a continuum of healthy behavior after the loss of a loves one.

Funerals and memorials help deal with grief. Memorializing the departed with gravestones and porcelain photo memorials creates a reminder of the impact they had on the world. A headstone picture uses photography’s ability to capture a moment to immortalize the memory of our loved ones the way we want to remember them.

Overcoming grief is not easy. Some feel guilt for trying to ease their pain, as if coping with grief means trying to forget the person one loved. Survivor’s guilt is a term describing the emotion that comes from the idea that one should have perished in place of a friend or family member. While these feelings of guilt are perfectly normal, one should seek guidance from a mental-health professional if they last for over two months.

How one experiences grief is unique. Scientific time-tables for grief do not necessarily dictate how long one’s personal journey through grief will last. Ignoring pain will only make it worse in the long run. Reaching out to others and keeping a normal routine can help in dealing with grief. Remember that there are no right or wrong feelings. One should reflect on his/her feelings to really understand what is bothering him/her.

Grieving is a process. Dealing with the death of a loved one does not mean you are forgetting him or her, it means you are accepting the finite nature of human existence. No two people grieve in the same way. Remembering your loved ones is a personal experience, and all advice in this article is merely suggestion. Stay strong for yourself, and for your loved ones.