What is Grief?

Grief is a cruel thing that, we humans must face in our lifetimes.  Life would be so much better if there were no grief, but then if there was no grief, then there would be no joy.  Sadly grief and joy do go hand in hand at times.  I do not fully understand grief and why it has such a powerful hold on us.  It has the power to take even the strongest person and turn them into a puddle of mud.  It takes your heart and squeezes so hard that if feels as if it is shattering.  It makes life so difficult to live at times, and the thing is once you experience it, it never goes away.  There are times when you think all is well, and it comes slamming into you like a freight train, reminding you of what you have truly lost.

Grief is defined at a response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something that has died and there was a bond or affection formed.  Yes people do grieve for their pets, but I'm not sure it is as deep as a grief as it would be for a family member.  I think that truly depends on the person and how close they were to the pet.  Some people are extremely close to their pets and treat them as they would a child, while others are like okay it is an animal how cute.

Grief is usually associated to an emotion response to loss, but it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, cultural, and philosophical dimensions.  Grief is a natural response to loss.  It is the emotional suffering one feels, when they have lost someone or something extremely important to them.  Most people experience grief when a loved one has died, but you can grieve in connection to a variety of losses throughout your life.  Those losses can be unemployment, ill health or the end of a relationship.  Loss can be either physical or abstract or both.  The physical loss is when you can no longer touch your loved one.  The abstract loss is related to the aspects of a person's social interactions, such as talking to them, or taking them somewhere.

Your experience with grief, will be different from another person's and remember that is okay.  We all grieve differently and we need to remember that.  Also, you might grieve somewhat differently each time you experience loss, as it depends on your relationship with that person and how close you were to them.

Just remember we all grieve, and it is normal to grieve.  There is no time period when one must be done grieving.  We all get through the grieving process differently, and truth be known, you will actually grieve forever, you just learn to live with it.