How to Deal With the Death of a Loved One

How to Deal With the Death of a Loved One

Dealing with the death of a loved one isn’t easy no matter the age they passed. Losing a loved one can send you into a downward spiral but there are things you can do to cope with grief.

Overcoming grief doesn’t happen quickly but there are things you can do to make things better as you’re going through the healing process. Using the tools and techniques below can help you from the moment of passing, the funeral and beyond.

Continue reading this article to learn how to deal with grief and get your life back.

Tips for Coping With the Death of a Loved One

Making funeral arrangements makes everything seem so real. Even when you’re working with a funeral company that is considerate and caring, the funeral makes everything very final. There are lots of decisions that have to be made and one of those is cremation vs. burial. Budgets also have to be considered and cremation cost is usually the most affordable in my experiences.

Use these tips to help you get through each day.

What Is Grief?

Grief is a natural reaction to death and is a deep feeling of sorrow that may overwhelm you when you lose a loved one. While everyone experiences grief — not everyone experiences it in the same way.

Give Yourself Permission to Grieve

If you’re used to being strong for everyone, you might not give yourself permission to grieve. You might think that if you show weakness, it is going to be more difficult for other people that you care about.

The truth is that if you don’t give yourself permission to grieve, you’ll end up hurting yourself and those that you care about.

The Stages of Grief

Most people have heard of the five stages of grief. While there are five stages of grief in most cases, you should know that this isn’t always the truth.

If you don’t experience these things, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t grieving or that you haven’t gone through grief already. Many people find it helpful to have some clue as to what they are going to go through when they lose a loved one but know it is more like a rollercoaster than a straight path.

The stages of grief are:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

If you’re stuck in a certain stage, it can feel as if you’ll never get out. As long as you continue to work through it, you will recover.

Symptoms of Grief

If you’re not sure if you’re experiencing grief or not, there are some things you should look out for.

If you’re experiencing guilt, shock, sadness, and even physical pain — these are all signs that you’re experiencing grief.

Talk to Someone

When we are hurting, we often withdraw into ourselves. Instead of seeking help or talking to someone, we hide in our room or try to sleep for hours on end to hide from the pain.

Talking to someone — whether it is a friend or family member or a medical professional is a good way to start the healing process. You don’t even have to talk about how you’re feeling. The passing of a loved can raise other questions like what happens if there’s no will? A wills and probate lawyer can help navigate these tricky questions and set you mind at ease.

Talking about the person that you lost can be a good way to start the healing process. You may even want to find someone else in your family that is grieving the same person and talk with them about this loss.

If you feel strange talking about your loss with people that don’t understand what you’re going through, you might want to consider joining a support group. There are many subgroups beyond groups for those that lost loved ones.

If you feel strange talking about your loss with people that don’t understand what you’re going through, you might want to consider joining a support group. There are many subgroups beyond groups for those that lost loved ones. These groups will help you process bereavement positively, and help you avoid turning to harmful ways of dealing with grief such as using drugs and alcohol, which could cause you to become dependent on these substances, something which could require an alcohol detox to overcome.

Consider Your Children

Just as you’re grieving, you have to remember that though children are small, they have big hearts. Those big hearts can break and they don’t have the same capacity to understand and deal with things as we adults do.

Helping your children work through their sadness and loss is a good way to work through your pain as well. It seems when you’re helping someone else, it takes the focus off your pain and allows those wounds to heal.

If your children seem to be taking the death very hard, you might want to go to a counselor together for professional help.

Honor Your Loved One’s Life

Honoring your loved one’s life is a great way to keep their memory alive and allow you to feel closer to the person that you lost. Setting up a memorial or having an event to tell stories about their life can help those that remain behind come together after a loss.

A funeral is a good way to honor your loved one’s life but that isn’t always enough. If there was a tradition your loved one always kept, you can continue to keep it in their honor.

Think of other creative ways you can keep your loved one’s memories alive. You might think that thinking about them will cause more pain but this is actually one of the fastest ways to healing.

Learn More About Important Life Moments

Now that you know how to start coping with the death of a loved one, why not keep learning about other life issues and how to best deal with other challenges? We have many articles that can help you in your day-to-day life.

Browse our articles, find your favorite section, drop a bookmark and come back soon for more great reads.