Are you feeling down from a friend or family members passing, and weeks or months have passed?
Have you recently lost a source of support, or been let go from a job and you’re feeling lost?
The journey of grief and loss involves feeling and riding the waves of sadness, anger or fear, and then returning to our daily routine once these feelings pass. But for some, these feelings don’t pass and they can begin to affect your daily life and the way you are living each day. You may have been experiencing traumatic grief – possibly losing someone suddenly, being responsible for a death, or you’ve lost a job after experiencing workplace harassment or bullying. Some of us lose a source of comfort and support, possibly losing a close relative or a pet, and we don’t know how to move on with our life without that person or pet being there.
Your self worth can also be affected without you even realising. If you’re finding you are experiencing feelings of depression, negative thoughts, take our checklist below to see if grief is affecting your life to the point of needing some guidance and support.
Checklist to determine if you are experiencing feelings of Depression
If you checked more than half of the above, what should you do?
- Try to follow your usual daily routine as best as you can, including enjoyed activities, sleep routine (even if not going to work), and regular hygiene
- Try to sit with waves of emotion when they come – take a moment to process the emotions.
- Take the time to read an article about emotions to give you some tips – The Importance of Sadness
Reach out for connection with someone you trust. It may help to tell a friend of loved one how they can best support you during this time (e.g. listen, give you a hug, share memories, validate your feelings, etc). Openly communicate with them about what you need.Remember that everyone grieves and processes loss in different ways. Whilst some individuals can intuitively guide themselves through these ‘ups and downs’ of emotion without additional support, many of us may experience symptoms of depression in addition to the loss. At Creating Change we have found that receiving some professional support from one of our team is often helpful, and can assist you to work through your feelings, and develop ways to get back into an everyday routine.