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6 Useful Tips For Anyone Grieving Their Pre-Pandemic Life
Grief is commonly linked to the experience that comes after losing someone we care deeply about, often through death. However, there are different kinds of grief and many of them have nothing to do with dying at all.
In fact, experts believe the coronavirus pandemic has plunged the world into a sort of collective and chronic grief, as we mourn jobs, relationships, holidays, normalcy and other tangible and intangible losses.
“Chronic grief is being experienced in many ways: through feelings of hopelessness; a sense of disbelief; avoidance of any situation that may remind someone of the loss; or loss of meaning and value in a belief system,” said John Sovec, a grief counselor in Pasadena, California. This grief “can be stressful because you don’t have time to properly grieve one loss before experiencing the next.”
During this time, a lot of people are also experiencing a shift in identity, which is its own form of death in a way, according to writer and grief coach Breeshia Wade.
“[People are] taking a look in the mirror and not recognizing themselves ... Maybe their identity was tied to a job they no longer have, or maybe our nation’s racial reckoning is causing them to see their participation in anti-Blackness,” Wade said. “They may not like what [they] see. There is grief in forming a new identity after the loss of an old one.”
This not only takes an emotional toll, but a physical one as well, added Julie G. Kays, manager and clinical counselor at the Counseling Center at Stella Maris in Timonium, Maryland.
“Sometimes we feel grief in our bodies before we feel it anywhere else,” she said. “Our bodies might experience more pain — headaches, stomach aches or intensifying chronic pain — or might feel depleted and numb in response to grief. Grief is exhausting, it impacts our overall ability to function and we may find ourselves distracted, forgetful and unable to focus. We may lack energy and not find pleasure in many...
