Bereavement Support In Collierville City, California

Grief is a complicated process that can last for months or even years when a loved one is dying and is surrounded by family and friends. Melodia Care Hospice can help you make the most of your time with a loved one in their last days. They can also help you deal with their death. If you have a plan for how to deal with your feelings as they come up, the stages of grief may not be as hard to deal with.

How to Understand the Grief Process

There is no right or healthy way to grieve because each person’s experience of loss is different. There is also no set time for the grieving process, and some people go through it in waves or short bursts of intense emotion rather than in a smooth progression from one stage to the next. This is because the time it takes to get over a loss is not set.

Hospice patients often go through the first stages of grief before they die. This is normal for the patient’s family and friends. Caregivers may start to feel sad about the loss of routines and experiences they used to share with a dying family member. This is because their lives have changed a lot, and they are getting ready for the person to leave.

In the late 1960s, a psychologist named Elisabeth Kübler-Ross came up with a theory about how people usually go through the stages of grief. The order of these phases doesn’t have to be in a straight line. Many choose not to move on to the next step and instead skip ahead or stay in a previous degree. Even if you think you’ve moved on from the feelings related to your loss, you may go back to a particular stage of grief months later.

You don’t have to deal with grief in a certain way to get over it and move on with your life. Still, some people find it helpful to know what stages other people usually go through during this time. This is especially true if they have also lost someone. Here are the five different stages of grief:

Denial: At this stage, the person who has lost something may try to deny that it happened or act like it doesn’t exist. It’s possible for people who care about someone to fight against the idea that the disease is fatal or refuse to believe that the person has died for good.
Anger: Anger is a stage of grief that can show up differently. One of the family members may feel angry at the dying person, which can make them feel guilty and sad. The dying person may also feel angry at the doctors or other medical staff taking care of them. When people are unhappy, they sometimes get mad at God or fate. With the help of a spiritual counselor, priest, or chaplain, it can be easier to deal with this kind of anger.
Bargaining: During the bargaining phase, a family member might try to make a deal to keep a loved one alive or bring someone back to life after death. When people bargain, they might pray for a miracle and promise to be good in exchange or beg doctors to save a loved one in exchange for money.
Depression: Most of the time, depression sets in when a person realizes that all their mental efforts to save a loved one have failed. Depression can feel like it’s taking over, and people in this stage of grief usually spend a lot of time crying, feeling sad, and thinking about the person who died. During this time, they might also think about the person who died.
Acceptance is the last step in the grieving process. This is when the person starts to fully understand that their loved one has died and looks for ways to remember and celebrate their life without feeling too sad. At the end of the grieving process.

How to Help Yourself Deal With Grief

At times, it can be hard to move through the stages of grief. Some people have learned ways to deal with problems in their lives that have helped them in the past. These methods may also help them deal with the issue of losing a loved one. Check out some of the suggestions below on how to deal with loss:

Talking about how you feel: Sharing with your friends how you’re dealing with the loss can help you feel better. Tell your friends that you don’t want their advice or answers and just want to talk about how you’re feeling or remember the person who died.
Writing in a diary: Keeping a journal of your feelings and thoughts not only helps you deal with your grief but also shows how you change as you move through the stages of grief. By thinking about how your view of the loss has changed over time, you can see that your grief is a process that is still going on.
Trying something new: Through activities like playing music, making crafts, or making art, you can show your creativity and work through strong emotions.
Setting aside time to grieve: Putting time on your daily calendar to suffer may seem counterintuitive, but it can help you work through difficult feelings. Find a place where you don’t have to worry about what other people will think if you cry. It’s okay to cry, scream, or act out in any other way that helps you deal with your loss.
Try not to make big changes in your life: If you’ve recently lost someone you love very much, it’s important to try to keep your life as normal as possible. You might want to wait to make big changes in your life, like a job move or a move, until you have had time to deal with your loss.
Regular exercise: During this time of loss, you might want to add more physical activity to your daily routine to let out your feelings and gain some perspective. A brisk walk or run outside can help you get your thoughts and feelings in order, and punching and kicking a punching bag can help you let go of anger and frustration over your loss.
Participating in social activities: If you spend too much time alone, grief can take over your life. Plan to have lunch with friends or join a support group.
Taking comfort in your religious practices: If you regularly attend religious services, grief counseling may help. You can also pray, meditate, or listen to religious music by yourself to deal with the spiritual parts of loss.
Healthy reminiscing: Your good memories of the person who died can help ease your pain. Take the time to remember your loved one by looking at old photos, reading letters or messages they left behind, or watching videos from their life. Writing or speaking out loud to the dead can help you feel better and keep in touch with them even after they’re gone.
As a way to remember your loved one, you could work for an organization or make a donation in their name if they were very involved with a certain cause or charity.
Spending time with pets: Pets can help people who are sad because they love and comfort them no matter what. If you don’t have any pets, you could volunteer at a local animal shelter to walk dogs or play with kittens so they can be adopted.
Joining a group to help with grief: Grief is something that everyone goes through, and being around other people who have recently lost someone or something similar can be comforting. Depending on what caused the death, like cancer or heart disease, you might be able to find a local support group for families who have lost a loved one.

Grief therapy and counseling from a professional

You can’t always get through a loss on your own. Sometimes you need help from others. Most of the time, grief grows and changes over time. Even though things will never be the same as they were before a loved one died, you will learn over time how to deal with your grief.

If you are having a hard time dealing with your loss, professional bereavement counseling may be able to help. Here are some signs that your grief may be causing you to have too many problems to handle on your own:

Having trouble sleeping
Having no appetite for a long time
Feelings of not being worth anything or being helpless
not taking care of yourself or doing housework
feeling like they can’t go back to work or do normal things months or years after the loss.
Thoughts of suicide

If you feel like you can’t deal with your grief on your own, find a licensed mental health professional in your area who can help. At any stage of your grief, a psychologist or counselor can help you find ways to deal with it. You can find bereavement counseling that works for you by choosing between one-on-one sessions and larger groups.

Melodia Care Hospice offers a lot of grief support to the people close to our hospice patients because we know how hard it can be to lose a loved one. Get in touch with us right away if you want to know more.