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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
Alzheimer's Disease
Antidepressants
Anxiety
Asperger's Syndrome
Autism
Bereavement/Grief
Bipolar Disorder
Compulsive Gambling
Coping with Chronic Illness
Child Behavior Disorders
Children Mental Health
Dementia
Depression
Developmental Disabilities
Dual Diagnosis
Eating Disorders
Learning Disorders
Memory
Mental Health
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Panic Disorder
Phobias
Postpartum Depression
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Prader-Willi Syndrome
Schizophrenia
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Suicide
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People cope with the loss
of a loved one in many ways. For some, the experience may
lead to personal growth, even though it is a difficult
and trying time. There is no right way of coping with death.
The way a person grieves depends on the personality of
that person and the relationship with the person who has
died. How a person copes with grief is affected by their
experience with cancer, the way the disease progressed,
the person’s cultural and religious background,
coping skills, mental history, support systems, and the person’s
social and financial status.
The terms grief, bereavement, and mourning are often used
in place of each other, but they have different meanings.
Grief is
the normal process of reacting to the loss. Grief reactions
may be felt in response to physical losses (for example,
a death) or in response to symbolic or social losses (for
example, divorce or loss of a job). Each type of loss means
the person has had something taken away. As a family goes
through a cancer illness, many losses are experienced,
and each triggers its own grief reaction. Grief may be
experienced as a mental, physical, social, or emotional
reaction. Mental reactions can include anger, guilt, anxiety,
sadness, and despair. Physical reactions can include sleeping
problems, changes in appetite, physical problems, or illness.
Social reactions can include feelings about taking care
of others in the family, seeing family or friends, or returning
to work. As with bereavement, grief processes depend on
the relationship with the person who died, the situation
surrounding the death, and the person’s attachment
to the person who died. Grief may be described as the presence
of physical problems, constant thoughts of the person who
died, guilt, hostility, and a change in the way one normally
acts.
Bereavement is the period after a loss
during which grief is experienced and mourning occurs. The
time spent in a period of bereavement depends on how attached
the person was to the person who died, and how much time
was spent anticipating the loss.
Mourning is
the process by which people adapt to a loss. Mourning is
also influenced by cultural customs, rituals, and society’s
rules for coping with loss.
Grief work includes the processes
that a mourner needs to complete before resuming daily
life. These processes include separating from the person
who died, readjusting to a world without him or her, and
forming new relationships. To separate from the person
who died, a person must find another way to redirect the
emotional energy that was given to the loved one. This
does not mean the person was not loved or should be forgotten,
but that the mourner needs to turn to others for emotional
satisfaction. The mourner’s roles, identity,
and skills may need to change to readjust to living in a
world without the person who died. The mourner must give
other people or activities the emotional energy that was
once given to the person who died in order to redirect emotional
energy.
People who are grieving often feel extremely tired because
the process of grieving usually requires physical and emotional
energy. The grief they are feeling is not just for the person
who died, but also for the unfulfilled wishes and plans for
the relationship with the person. Death often reminds people
of past losses or separations. Mourning may be described
as having the following 3 phases:
- The urge to bring back the person
who died.
- Disorganization and sadness.
- Reorganization.
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