In our everyday lives, there will be instances that we always loss something. Its either something or someone we love. Whatever loss we suffered, there is no right or wrong way to grief but we can find our own ways and types to grief by identifying it in a healthier way.

What is grief? To help us understand, it is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. You may experience all kinds of difficult and unexpected emotions, from shock or anger to disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness. Which it is okay to feel that way, but by ignoring it, our pain will only make it worse in the long run.

Grief is not just about someone who died or something we love loss somewhere, it’s also a divorce or relationship breakup, losing a job, loss of financial stability, a miscarriage, facing terminal illness, retirement, selling the family home, or a loss of a friendship. Anything that you loss that means its personal to you and you don’t have to be ashamed about how you feel.

Like everyone else, every grief is unique and that doesn’t mean that we all have to be in the same process of grieving. Grieving depends on many factors, including your personality and coping style, your faith, and how significant the loss was to you. But the most important step to deal with grieving is acknowledging your pain, because when we don’t acknowledge our pain, we might not know how to cope with the pain.

By identifying it to ourselves and to other people, there are different types of grief and loss.

• Anticipatory grief is where a grief develops before a significant loss occurs rather than after. For example, like some you love is terminally ill, an aging pet, or you know that your retirement is coming.
• Disenfranchised grief can occur when your loss is devalued, stigmatized, or cannot be openly mourned. Some people may minimize the loss of a job, a pet, or a friendship, as something that’s not worth grieving over.
• Lastly is Complicated grief is when it keeps you from resuming your daily life and relationships.

In research in 1969 about 5 stages of grief by Kubler-Ross that she based of the feelings of patients facing terminal illness, but majority of the people generalized them to other types of negative life death of a loved one or break up. She discussed that there is Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

 Grief can be a roller coaster, non-linear, it’s full of ups and downs. You do not have to go through each stage in order to heal. In fact, some people resolve their grief without going through any of these stages but it is important that you take care of yourself as you grieve. The stress of a major loss can quickly deplete your energy and emotional reserves. Looking after your physical and emotional needs will help you get through this difficult time.

“They were never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages. They are responses to loss that many people have, but there is not a typical response to loss, as there is no typical loss. Our grieving is as individual as our lives.” - Kübler-Ross (2004)

Reference:

https://www.helpguide.org/mental-health/grief/coping-with-grief-and-loss