Grief hits hard. It can be sudden — being fired from your job, losing your house to fire, a loved one gone in an instant. Or it can grow slowly, starting with small bits of emotional pain, such as from a chronic disease leading to increasing disability, or emotional distance from a loved one widening over the years, or a partner besieged by dementia. These small bits combine and persist until you are under a weight so heavy that you can finally name it: grief.

Sometimes grief comes camouflaged as “normal life,” leaving you grappling to identify the reasons for feeling bereft. Any transition, even a seemingly positive one, can trigger this feeling — from moving to another city for work, committing to a relationship, having a child, or the retirement of a spouse. The ending of any of the various eras of life can trigger grief; a mourning for what your life was and for who you were before this transition.

Whatever shape grief takes, it has a profound impact and needs attention. Writing about your grief can help to lighten the weight of it. In a 2023 interview, Lisa Shulman, MD, FAAN, professor of neurology at the University of Maryland and author of Before and After Loss: A Neurologist's Perspective on Loss, Grief, and Our Brain, explained:

"The brain's response to traumatic loss can result in disorientation and heightened anxiety that can disrupt sleep and increase disturbing........

© Psychology Today