My response: I hope it helps to know that this re-awakening of intense grief around the six-month mark is not at all unusual, and in fact is normal and very common. This is why we encourage the bereaved to consider joining a grief support group, most especially at this particular point in their grief journey. It is when the initial shock and numbness fall away that we begin to feel the full impact of what we have lost. It is also when the attention and support of friends and family may begin to wane. Now is the time to look elsewhere for the comfort, understanding and support that is still wanted and needed. What better place to find it than with others who share in the experience of loss and know first-hand the pain of grief?
I invite you to read what various authors have to say about finding support in a group. Such writings also serve to explain why our own online Grief Healing Discussion Groups can be so helpful:
Carolyn Ambler Walter, in The Loss of a Life Partner:
It is often difficult for a widow or widower to express genuine and at times, intense grief, because of our society’s tendency to view death as an unnatural occurrence rather than as a universal phase of the life cycle. Society also tends to put the widow or widower on a time schedule for the grieving process and usually prefers that the bereaved partner “get on with living.” A support group can combat this insensitive societal schedule by encouraging bereaved spouses to establish their own timetable for grieving. Bereavement support groups represent an excellent approach to this highly vulnerable population, because the small-group format can specifically address and lessen “the intense social isolation experienced by most bereaved spouses” (Yalom and Vinogradov 1988). In general, the literature advocates support groups for bereaved spouses . . .
Support groups for bereaved spouses have several goals:
•To assist members to cope with the pain of grief and mourning by creating a community in which they are deeply understood by peers.
•To combat the social isolation that is so pervasive
•To support members as they begin to understand the changes facing them as they begin to fashion a new future for themselves
•To offer hope; to see that others who also know the darkness of loss are not immobilized by it
•To obtain support from others who’ve shared a similar loss (p. 229).
Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD, in Companioning the Bereaved:
The worth of [grief support groups] does not emanate from empirically supported treatments, but from something much more simple (yet powerful): the telling of stories. The meetings are anchored in honoring each member’s stories of grief and supporting each other’s need to authentically mourn. No effort is made to interpret or analyze. The group affirms the storyteller for the courage to express the raw wounds that often accompany loss. The stories speak the truth, and create hope and healing. [The leader’s] role is not so much about group counseling techniques as it is about creating “sacred space” in the group so that each person’s story can be non-judgmentally received. Effective grief group leadership is a humble yet demanding role of creating this space in ways that members can express their wounds in the body of community. The very experience of telling one’s story in the common bond of the group contradicts the isolation and shame that characterizes so many people’s lives in a mourning-avoidant culture. And, because stories of love and loss take time, patience, and unconditional love, they serve as powerful antidotes to a modern society that is all too often preoccupied with getting people to “let go” and “move on.” The creation of new meaning and purpose in life requires that mourners “re-story” their lives. Obviously, this calls out for the need for empathic companions, not treaters. Indigenous cultures acknowledge that honoring stories helps reshape a person’s experience. The stories are re-shaped not in the telling of the story once or twice or even three times, but over and over again. Mourners need compassionate listeners to hear and affirm their truths (pp. 82-83).
Ann Dawson, in A Season of Grief:I searched the Internet for hours to find groups that could relate to this pain. I was fortunate to know a few other mothers who had experienced the loss of a child. These mothers sought me out to offer me comfort and hope. We should not be alone during this time. We need to hear from others who have been there before us, who can listen to our stories and know what our sorrow feels like. We need to talk about our loved one to strangers, to proclaim to others that our beloved lived and was a real person. Other bereaved people know this and listen willingly. They share their stories also. We help each other by sharing our loss and pain. Eventually we find ourselves on the giving end of this compassion, reaching out to the newly devastated, helping them along, encouraging them, and listening to them. There is an old song we used to sing in church that had this refrain: “Bear one another’s burdens, and share each other’s joys, and love one another, love one another, and bring each other Home.” This is what our lives are all about.
There are many people who have suffered the same loss that we ourselves have, who know what our pain feels like and who are able to reach out from beyond their brokenness to help us along. In time, we too are able to turn and help those who come after us on the same road. Together, stumbling, reaching out for help, pausing to offer comfort, walking together, we can complete our journey. In the process, we learn to love and to be loved much more fully. This is one of the gifts of bereavement.
And so, at this point in your grief journey, my dear, I hope you will consider joining a grief support group ~ whether it meets online or in person. For specific suggestions, see Finding Grief Support That Is Right For You.
Afterword: Thank you. I was working last night and started crying about 3 or 4 times. I'm usually ok at work but last night I couldn't focus I couldn't think. I just sat there and was in deep thought on most of my down time. I had a few things that reminded me of my beloved last night and I couldn't help but cry. I hope this gets easier soon. This might be the worst time I have had so far. In the beginning things were just so unbeleivable that I don't think I thought it was really happening. I was numb. Now reality truly sets in and I feel so helpless. I tried talking to my coworkers about how I felt but they would just change the subject. I don't think they realize it helps me to talk about it. I think you're right. Maybe it's time for me to find a grief support group.
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Related:
- Grief Support Group: Should I Stay or Leave?
- Grief Support Groups: What Are The Benefits?
- Grief Support Online: An Invitation
- In Grief: Finding Support In A Group
- Look To Your Hospice for Grief Support
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