Why You MUST Take Time To Grieve
Jun 14, 2020
When you experience any type of loss, the normal response is a period of mourning, also known as “grief.” Grief can be caused by the loss of someone you love, a divorce or breakup, a recently diagnosed illness, or financial troubles.
Grief usually comes in five stages: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. By allowing yourself the opportunity to grieve, you’re able to address your grief as it comes and return to your normal everyday life much sooner.
At the same time, not addressing your grief has the potential to set you back emotionally and mentally in both the short and long-term. So, let’s go over what can happen if you completely avoid the grieving process.
Avoidance
No matter what type of loss you’ve experienced, there are triggers in your life that might remind you of this loss. These triggers might be specific people, a song on the radio, a certain location, or even a precious gift from your loved one.
When you don’t take the time to grieve, you might go out of your way to avoid these triggers. That can completely disrupt your life and you might even begin to experience anxiety due to the effort it takes to avoid your triggers and your grief.
Eventually, you’ll find yourself trapped inside your home carefully planning out every step of your day to avoid reminders of your loss.
Fearing Relationships
When you lose a person that’s very important to you, the grief can be even more intense than usual. Yet, not grieving the loss of a loved one might actually impact your current and future relationships without your knowledge.
You thought your loved one would be with you forever, but now they’re gone. So, you might be afraid of starting new relationships or letting people get too close out of fear that you’ll lose them eventually as well.
In a sense, you’re always preparing for the worst when it comes to building close connections with other people.
Anger
Even if you’re not outwardly grieving your loss, both your body and mind are still experiencing the loss in some way. But rather than manifesting as sadness, it might show in the form of anger instead.
When you let your emotions get too built up, you’re much more likely to take them out on other people, especially the people you care about. Not grieving might lead you to lash out at those you love and strain your relationships permanently.
It’s as if you’re mad at the world for your loss while still denying yourself the chance to cope with your loss directly.
Depression
Just because you aren’t directly facing your grief head-on doesn’t mean that you aren’t still feeling the sadness inside. Not addressing your grief can also cause an overwhelming sadness that could eventually lead to depression.
So, instead of feeling the typical sadness of grief, avoiding your grief will eventually lead you to a more intense sadness than you wouldn’t have experienced otherwise. You might notice that you have a low mood, aren’t interested in your hobbies, or don’t care about anything anymore.
Not only will you have to deal with the depression, but you’ll also have to deal with the loss eventually to rid yourself of this depressed state.
Final Thoughts
Even though it might seem easier to pretend the loss didn’t happen and just move on with your life, it’ll eventually build up and negatively affect you in the long-term.
So, it’s best to deal with your grief immediately rather than letting anger, depression, avoidance, and fear pile up and eventually take hold of your entire life.
What's the Difference Between
Anxiety & Panic Attacks?
Download our free printable workbook with writing prompts that will help you learn the difference between worrying & anxiety disorders, how to control your anxiety symptoms & how to speak to loved ones to get the help you need.
