Grieving The Death Of A Family Member: 5 Ways It Can Affect Us
The death of a family member is one of the most common reasons why people feel they need psychotherapeutic help.
This is understandable, given that in many cases, the absence of that loved one becomes something that is constantly thought about during the first days after death, and this implies clear psychological wear and tear.
Here we will see What are the most common psychological effects of grieving the death of a family member? to better understand this phenomenon.
How can mourning the death of a family member affect us?
Psychological grief is a psychological alteration of a mainly emotional type that arises after experiencing situations of loss that is, events in which something or someone very important to us disappears from our lives, totally or partially.
The example of grief par excellence is the one that appears in most people when one of their loved ones dies, since this represents the definitive loss of someone very significant to oneself.
Most cases of psychological grief do not lead to a mental disorder or evolve into what is known as “complicated grief”, but that does not mean that it does not produce severe pain during the days or weeks in which it is present. Here we will see What are the main emotional and behavioral implications of “normal” grief? for the death of a family member.
Obsessive ruminations consist of thoughts and mental images that appear in consciousness frequently and that, despite causing discomfort we are not able to “block” them.
In the case of people who are experiencing a grieving process, these mental contents that arise in their consciousness over and over again usually refer to what they have lost, the experiences that will no longer be repeated, etc.
2. Anxiety
Anxiety is also a common phenomenon in those who suffer from the death of a family member. Many of these people feel that the situation is beyond them that whatever they do, reality can turn against them and, ultimately, they interpret that they are exposed to all kinds of sources of pain and discomfort.
In part, this is because experiencing a death up close means having a very clear reminder that you are vulnerable.
3. Sleep problems
Problems falling asleep are relatively common in people who have recently lost a loved one, and are due, in part, to the emotional imbalances that we have explained before.
Even people who, being in a process of psychological grief, do not have problems falling asleep (for example, being exhausted from having spent most of the day subjected to anxiety) may suffer problems in the quality of their sleep due to to nightmares, which are more common in situations like this.
4. Melancholy
In any normal grieving process, it is very common to fantasize that the person who died is still alive and we can continue to relate to them.
It is a way to release the tension accumulated by the frustration of not being able to be with her but at the same time, this generates the feeling that reality is not capable of satisfying us.
When the most painful emotions are on the surface, we expose ourselves more to the risk of adopting harmful habits because we are tempted to look for distractions and experiences that help us mask the discomfort.
Examples of this type of harmful coping strategies are the tendency to binge eat even when not hungry, postponing responsibilities in order to watch television longer, etc.
Grief does not mean developing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder
There are two psychopathological alterations that, although they are not part of the grieving processes themselves, many people tend to intuitively associate them with the concept of the death of family members: depression and post-traumatic stress To what extent is it common for them to appear after losing a loved one?
From what has been seen from research on this topic, the occasions in which psychological grief gives way to one of these two disorders (or both at the same time) are relatively rare, although it must be taken into account. that depressive disorders with or without grief are quite common.
This means that although post-traumatic stress and major depression are not rare mental disorders, it is not very likely that psychological grief causes them to appear.
On the one hand, most cases of grief tend to be practically completely resolved after a few weeks or a few months, and do not lead to a mood disorder such as major depression.
Of course, people who have already suffered episodes of depression in the past have a higher risk of relapse after experiencing one of these losses, but even in these cases, a death does not necessarily mean developing symptoms again.
On the other hand, Post-traumatic stress usually develops when you experience a catastrophic or violent event , which is an emotional shock, and a large number of deaths do not have these characteristics. Even in those people who have developed complicated grief and who have witnessed a violent death, the cases in which post-traumatic stress develops do not reach 65%.
Are you looking for psychotherapeutic help for grief?
In therapy It is possible to learn to adequately manage the emotions and habits associated with maintaining grief to be able to overcome it in the best possible way.
If you are going through painful moments due to a grieving process that is difficult for you, we invite you to contact our team of professionals.
Psychomaster is a mental health care center in which psychologists and psychiatrists work with many years of experience and trained in the most effective methods when caring for patients of all ages.
You can count on our services both in person at our facilities in Madrid and through online therapy. To see more information about Psicomaster, access this page.
