Understanding and Managing Grief, September 29 - October 5, 2024

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month  

Best selections from Grief Healing's X feed this week:

In these turbulent times, families have suffered devastating losses of loved ones, from the anguish of COVID-related deaths to gun violence, drug overdose, suicide, environmental disasters, and war. More attention is urgently needed in marriage and family therapy training and practice to help the bereaved heal and forge pathways to live and love fully beyond loss. Loss, Grief, and Resilience « Psychology Today

Funeral Director Allyse R. Worland has spent many years witnessing the many ways—both good and bad—people offer grief support, navigating the difficult moments, days, months, and even years that follow the loss of a loved one. Now, she’s here to guide us through the sensitive questions that often arise. How to Support a Friend Who’s Grieving « THE EVERYGIRL

Studies about developmental milestones and related challenges for adults at midlife are limited, including research about the death of a parent. The death of their last remaining parent may have a particularly strong psychological impact on adult children, but it also may lead them to better relationships with their own children. Grieving the midlife loss of a parent « American Psychological Association

Feelings of loss may start long before a parent’s death. Alzheimer’s disease or any form of dementia can steal a person’s essential sense of self, robbing them and their loved ones of their connection to one another. This type of ambiguous loss, with the parent still physically present but cognitively absent, is one of the most difficult forms of loss, as there’s no resolution, said Pauline Boss, PhD, who coined the term in the 1970s and fleshed out the concept more fully in her book Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live With Unresolved Grief. With dementia, grief may start long before a parent’s death « American Psychological Association  

Much as you may try to avoid them or ignore them, your various reactions to loss can pop up when you least expect them. They can be triggered by something as simple as a song on the radio, an advertisement in a magazine, or a spoken word or phrase that reminds you of the person you have lost. Coping with STUGs (Subsequent Temporary Upsurges of Grief) « Grief Healing

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