Grief is a universal experience, often navigated through five stages, though the order may vary for each person, but how do you get through grief and how does your brain react to each stage?
The first stage is denial. Often felt right after a death or loss of a loved one happens, this is a numbness where it’s hard to accept the loss. Next is anger, where natural feelings of anger occur relating to the unfairness of losing someone. After anger usually comes bargaining. In this stage people try to negotiate or make deals with reality, sometimes reaching out to a higher power. The fourth stage is depression. This is a drastic and deep amount of sadness that affects your daily life as you come to terms with the loss. The last stage for many is acceptance. People eventually learn to live with the loss and keep the loved one’s memory alive.
The brain reacts to grief in many ways as grief is a coping mechanism with one goal. The brain’s survival. Grief is portrayed as a threat to the brain’s health so the brain makes new nerve connections and pathways, and adjusts the already existing ones so that the emotional impact of the event is softened. The neural pathways are created in a process called neuroplasticity which helps the brain adapt to sickness, loss, and other major life changes. Long-term grief is harmful to your brain’s cognitive functions. Those include memory, attention span, decision-making, verbal fluency, and comprehension fluency.
Remember, people experience grief in many different ways, and know that you are not alone.
Related Articles:
https://www.americanbrainfoundation.org/how-tragedy-affects-the-brain/
https://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/
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If you are experiencing depression and in need of help, or know someone that does need help, call 988.
