Grieving and Health
Grieving is normal after a cremation service in Tallahassee. When you lose someone you love to death, the pain is palpable. Not only are you adjusting to a loss in the physical sense, but you are also coping with a monumental shift in who are you and how your life will be without them in it.
Almost nobody in our society recognizes the depths of the grieving process: what it means, what it does, and how long it can actually take to come through it to a place where, although the loss is ever present, you can actually start moving forward into creating a new and meaningful life without your loved one in it.
Because of this lack of recognition, the costs of grief, especially on your overall health, are hidden until they get manifested, perhaps weeks later, perhaps months later, or perhaps years later, in significant physiological, mental, and emotional health issues that can potentially put your life at risk.
The term bereavement is somewhat archaic in our modern language. But, its origins refer to a time, long past, when people who had lost loved ones openly mourned the loss by wearing black for a certain amount of time and by taking the time out from the normal rhythm of life to grieve and to heal from the acute pain of death.
That time is no more. Today, death is just another thing to do and get past, as quickly as possible. If you’re fortunate, your employer may give you three paid days off to make funeral arrangements and hold a memorial service. Then, you’re expected to be back at work, over it, and ready to give 100% to your job and your life as though nothing happened.
It’s impossible to do. There are some people who actually lose their jobs after the death of someone they love because their job performance, which was stellar before, suddenly is erratic or much less stellar.
Mistakes and errors, sometimes big ones and sometimes costly ones, happen. In general, too, the higher your job performance was before the death of your loved one, the more glaring the effects of their death and your grief will be in how you do your job.
What employers, and society in general, don’t understand or realize is that grief is a process that gets a whole lot worse before it gets better.
Sleep is disrupted. Emotions run the gambit as you process memories, unknowns, fears, sadness, hopelessness, and aloneness (even though you may be surrounded by family members, when a loved one dies, there is a part of you that is now alone).
The return to “normal” life with its hustle and bustle, with all of the effects of the grieving process going on in the background, creates a tremendous amount of psychological stress, mental stress, and physical stress.
The body is not designed to handle this kind of unrelenting and pervasive stress for very long. Grief researchers have found that your risk for a premature death after the loss of a loved one is highest in the first two years after they’ve died.
They have also found that once you’ve experienced the loss of a loved one, your risk for an early death never returns to the lower risk that the general population has.
For more information about grief resources after a cremation service in Tallahassee, including grief resources, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can call us today at (850) 627-1111.
