How to deal with grief

Grief befalls many of us and recently quite a few were affected by the recent passing of Talent Chademana.

Obviously, there are different levels of grief, like how close you are to the person who dies. Losing a parent, a child or a close friend have different effects.

Often, the first thing is to deal with the feeling of helplessness and anxiety. We often ask what we could have done to assist the situation especially when we feel we could have helped things along.

Some of the emotions you go through are, denial, disbelief, confusion, sadness, shock, anger, humiliation, yearning, despair and even guilt.

But what to do. Here are a few ways to try and cope with grief.

Express yourself: Talking is helpful. Talk to a friend, family member, counsellor and more. You need to heal
Allow yourself to feel: Those feelings we mentioned. They are valid. Feeling is an important part of the grieving process.
Keep your routine: Do the simple things that you normally do.
Sleep: Sleep well. Not sleeping will hurt you.
Eat healthily: Your body needs nourishment. Going through a stressful time has an effect on your body. So nourish it.
Avoid drugs and alcohol to number the pain: Doing things that suspend the pain will only make you feel worse. You fail to deal with your pain, And you will lose aspects of above.

Now of course at some point you will need to look for professional help if you feel you cannot cope with overwhelming emotions or daily life. Don’t self-diagnose. Things such as a lack of sleep, other relationships are suffering and things such as depression or anxiety.