Last night a great neighbor of mine has passed away from an aneurysm in his stomach that occurred one week ago. He had a lot of internal bleeding and they provided him with a tube in order to withdraw the blood from his stomach. Well, late last night, he suffered a major heart attack and did not make it through. He was 67 years old and the most talented man you had ever met. Whatever you needed, he was certainly there.
I am extremely solemn over this experience and wanted to share some how to deal methods after losing someone. There is such a pocket of emptiness that follows such a loss. There is no exception to the rule, we will all pass over, it is a part of life. It is extremely important to make everything you say and do count today. You can never predict what will happen tomorrow.
I found on Essortment.com there are 8 stages of grief.
1) Shock – Immediately following the death of a loved one it is difficult to accept the loss. A feeling of unreality occurs. During those first days and through any religious rituals or memorials there is a feeling of being-out-of-touch.
2) Emotional Release – the awareness of just how dreadful the loss is accompanied by intense pangs of grief. In this stage a grieving individuals sleeps badly and weeps uncontrollably
3) Panic - For some time a grieving person can feel in the grip of mental instability. They can find themselves wandering around aimlessly, forgetting things, and not being able to finish what they started. Physical symptoms also can appear -- tightness in the throat, heaviness in the chest, an empty feeling in the stomach, tiredness and fatigue, headaches, migraine headaches, gastric and bowel upsets.
4) Guilt – At this stage an individual can begin to feel guilty about failures to do enough for the deceased, guilt over what happened or what didn’t happen.
5) Hostility – Some individuals feel anger at what “caused” the loss of the loved one.
6) Inability to Resume Business-as-Usual Activities - the ability to concentrate on day-to-day activities may be severely limited. It is important to know and recognize that this is a normal phenomenon. A grieving person’s entire being – emotional, physical and spiritual, is focused on the loss that just occurred. Grief is a 100% experience. No one does it at 50%.
7) Reconciliation of Grief – balance in life returns little by little, much like healing from a severe physical wound. There are no set time frames for healing. Each individual is different.
8) Hope - the sharp, ever present pain of grief will lessen and hope for a continued, yet different life emerges. Plans are made for the future and the individual is able to move forward in life with good feelings knowing they will always remember and have memories of the loved one.
Does anyone else want to share a story?