Grief

The dictionary defines grief as a deep, prolonged, mental anguish over a loss. Grief is a response to a loss and therefore it can have many reasons like loss of a loved one, end of a long relationship etc. It does not have any parameters because the reaction depends on the extent of loss. Grief does not end within a specific time period it is a cyclic process through which a person goes through before his mental balance is restored.

Grieving as a healthy process

Grief as a response has no pattern. It can be wild, irrational and even crazy. Healthy grieving is a way to start life afresh. Grieving does not mean spending time mourning over the loss and shedding tears over them. Healthy grieving deals with how effectively we cope up with the profound emotions inside us and direct them to constructive forms. Some people resort to destructive measures to get over the loss like they try and kill themselves, take help of drugs and alcohol to forget their pain. But that is not wise because the person pushes himself into more detrimental physical state rather getting himself out of the agony.

Stages of healthy grieving

According to the researches healthy grieving has 3 different stages. First stage is the phase of profound emotions where the person suffers through shock and numbness. He denies the reality and there is indignation for what has happened. The same period also sees the gush of emotional outbursts too. This helps the person relieving himself of the burden. This can take from months to even years. Second stage is the phase of mental marathon when there is a lot of thought process put in. The person questions a lot of things to himself. This phase helps in the restoration of metal stability but there are periodic outbursts of emotions. The third stage is the phase of spiritual connection with god where the person might question god's existence. There is disbelief, denial and the person loses his faith. He grows cynical but gradually he returns back to the normal state of mind.