The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that “over 50 percent of all people who die by suicide suffer from major depression.” According to Healthline, grief after losing a loved one can lead to depression or make underlying depression even worse. Death can trigger intense feelings of grief or depression, and knowing how to overcome them can be life-saving. Here are 4 steps that will help you overcome the loss of a loved one.
1. Accepting feelings and understanding them
The process of losing a loved one triggers intense emotions that could potentially ruin your life. Accepting that these emotions are completely normal will help you understand and eventually control them. Remind yourself that you are perfectly capable of doing this.
2. Gathering support
During the coping process, being alone will seem like the best option. However, being alone can lead to more depression. Losing a loved one can leave a big hole in your heart, so surrounding yourself with family, friends, or counselors will help you fulfill it.
3. Understanding the different grieving processes
Everyone has different ways of coping with loss. Grief usually occurs through 5 stages. Going through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance varies among individuals. Allow yourself to find the time you need to go through all of these one step at a time.
4. Healing takes time and effort
Pain will want to take over you during grief. Accepting that death is a reality will help you come to good terms with it. Motivate yourself to do something new or something you love doing, so that you can get your mind off of things and live your life to the fullest.
Overall, intense grief is a natural component of life, and knowing how to understand the stages of it as well as knowing what to do in each of them will help you overcome the loss of a loved one, so that you can regain your happiness once again! There are many institutions that help individuals experiencing grief. New Hope for kids focuses on helping children heal after the loss of loved one. If you know of any children who need help, visit New Hope For Kids.