Grief is an unpredictable and unavoidable part of life. Mental health experts share coping strategies for mourning when curling up in bed isn’t an option.
May 16, 2019, 12:02 PM CDT
By Nicole Spector
In early January, just days after we’d said our post-holiday goodbyes, my husband’s Aunt Alice passed away. We’d become very close and her sudden death brought me to me knees, and then right into a fetal position. Three weeks later, my Uncle Randy died out of nowhere of a heart attack. This loss too, doubled me over and rendered me completely unable to do much of anything.
As a freelancer I was able to take as much time off as I needed, but because I felt it could be potentially harmful to my career and finances to just go off the grid, I took just a couple days and then flung myself right back into the hustle.
I managed, but honestly I think I did OK because, although I was close to my loved ones who passed, our lives were not inextricably woven together. I hadn’t lost a child, a parent or a spouse.
What would I have done in the wake of a more severe loss? More pointedly: How would I have even been able to grieve and be productive at the same time?
There’s no strict answer to this, and it may be such that you just can’t work after a traumatic loss; but in talking with mental health experts and folks who have lost loved ones while working, I’ve learned that there are ways to manage grieving on the job.
Kevon Owen Christian Clinical Psychotherapist is a contributing writer in this article. To view the article please click this link. https://nbcnews.to/2X06jFW
