5 Types of Grief
This headline stopped me. Ummmm The stages of grief made me curious. This is not the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross stages which has outlived its usefulness. The author Madeleine Burry examines grief that can occur outside of loss of a loved one. I have been guilty of just speaking about grief in the realm of Donna's death. So TIL more about grief.
The five are: Anticipatory grief, Delayed grief, Absent grief, Inhibited grief, and Disenfranchised grief. I fully embrace Anticipatory grief. It was there the second Donna was diagnose with Stage IV cancer. For the three plus years she was in treatment I was her caregiver and was busy managing her disease. Burry calls that Inhibited grief where you keep busy. I can say that was me. That was me post 9/11 when I threw myself into making sure my employees and business were working.
There is much in this link and so worthy of a read. The section on coping strategies for different types of grief is excellent tip sheet we can all benefit from.
Vast Impact of Grief
Such an odd find. Not the topic but the site. "Modern Day Loss: The Vast Impact of Grief" is from a financial web site Market Screener. The long article is from Modern Loss cofounder and grief advocate Rebecca Soffer. She discusses year after the pandemic cluster how are we coping? If at all. Ugh
This piece examines the grief that exists without the direct loss of a loved one. Grief is not only welded to loss it exists in many losses we've all suffered in our collective pandemic experiences. Soffer makes the very very valid point "the grief pandemic that is growing will far outlast the COVID-19 pandemic." Word up
Soffer makes a very important point in this article about empathy in the work place. Which is key to so many, workplace support. She shouts out vulnerable as key and I have to agree. In my crisis counseling conversations I speak about how sharing and being vulnerable helps us find the words to wrap around our minds puzzle pieces of grief. And she speaks to managers and clearly asks them to hold open conversation about mental health. Here is a link to the original article. A great read
The Pandemic's Toll on Teen Mental Health
This is an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. I wanted to share this because as a crisis counselor and have had many many conversations with teens. I've seen first hand the struggle teens are having during this pandemic and will have after. Like grief the pain they feel and are struggling with will have long term consequences.
This piece addresses in great detail that though teens are being hospitalized with COVID-19 the CDC missed the larger point. The pandemic-control measures are impacting teen mental health. Teen elective visits including mental health services were unavailable which is driving pre-existing mental health gaps for children in the US. So much so that this is happening
"...from Children’s Hospital of Oakland show a 66% increase in 10- to 17-year-olds screening positive for active or recent suicidal ideation in its emergency department between March and October 2020."
Eating disorders rose by 75% in 2020 and this data "The Children’s Hospital Association reported a nearly 20% rise in admissions for suicide attempts and a more than 40% increase in admissions for children with disruptive behavior disorders."
A troubling trend in teens that will continue. We need to advocate and support teens and the long term mental health effects of this Pandemic crisis.
For Teens Like Us, Pandemic Reopening Anxiety Is Extra Complicated
This is a piece from Elite Daily and speaks to the added burden teens will have and are having trying to get back into society they value and trust namely peers. A March study from the American Psychological Association showed 49% of all respondents of all ages felt uneasy about adjusting to in-person interactions. I know for me the visits I've made to friends I have been off the hook anxious and so out of touch with how to communicate. I came home worried how much of a failure I am as a human.
"According to Sarah Lipson, Ph.D., Ed.M., an assistant professor in the Department of Health Law Policy and Management at Boston University, friend groups are a crucial form of mental support for teens like Frank, Kjerstyn, and me. “Young people are more likely to tell their peers what they’re going through to process that way, to develop identities,” she says. The sudden removal of these support structures and friend groups while in pandemic isolation hit teens harder than it did older people, who are less reliant on their peers to help process their emotions and develop their identities. Now, faced with reopening, this primary source of teens’ mental health support has transformed into a stressor."
Learning to Live in a world Without a Loved One
Was published in Greater Good Magazine written by Lucy Hone. Hone addresses the ever present and very real epidemic of grief within this pandemic. The sheer magnitude of global grief is staggering. Those in the middle of it from COVID or those of us who have lost a loved one pre-pandemic grief loss and allowing light to ender out grief wound is needed. Hone present a very clear and concise path.
Understand your grief
Talk about your grief (So important)
Build a legacy (This website and Donna, A Photo Memoir of Love and Loss)
Rituals
A worthy read for those new to grief or those like me a grief ambassador much to take in here.