While it is a natural, healthy and inevitable emotional response, grief after the loss of a loved one can be devastating. This response to a death or other painful life occurrence, such as divorce, has several primary and recognizable qualities. Sufferers from grief will experience sadness and despair, difficulty concentrating, tiredness and fatigue, loss of appetite, frequent crying, sleeplessness as well as a mix of happy and sad memories and often feelings of guilt. These feelings can persist over long periods of time which vary significantly from individual to individual. With grief, there is no “normal” limit to the amount of time you may experience these feelings.
Grief after a major personal loss closely resembles and mimics a major depressive disorder which is a serious, clinically-diagnosed mental health condition recognized and defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A major depressive disorder includes many features, most notable of which are despair, guilt, powerlessness and helplessness, extreme fatigue, irritability, and loss of interest in enjoyed activities.
This condition differs from grief in a few key ways. For example, if you suffer from depression, you will also likely have low self-esteem, feeling of worthlessness and even suicidal thoughts. If you have mild depression, however, an episode of grief can increase your symptoms of depression and even bring on major depression. In either case, you face a very high likelihood of relying on drugs and alcohol to relieve some of the sadness, stress and painful symptoms.
Substance use can seem like a convenient way to relieve momentary stress, but it can have serious consequences if you use it to self-medicate your grief or signs of depression. Alcohol in particular functions as a depressant. While drinking may help numb some of the painful feelings you have during this time, it can also increase your grief and depression. Extended grief can also evolve into major depression if it does not resolve on its own and you do not seek professional treatment. Unaddressed grief can thus bring on major emotional, psychological and physical problems, even in the absence of substance abuse or other mental health problems.
Grief has many observable signs and symptoms many of which can be long-lasting. Major indicators of grief include:
Physical Indicators
Emotional Indicators
You will not be able to overcome your grief or other mental health symptoms if you are still using drugs and alcohol as a means of self-medication. Drugs and alcohol will always increase your other negative symptoms, add new negative symptoms, delay an accurate diagnosis and treatment or undermine behavioral treatment you do receive. A compassionate and individualized approach to detox helps you end your chemical dependency by removing all traces of drugs from your body and stopping drug cravings by focusing on risk factors specific to your personality, style of use and social factors.
This same approach will help you overcome the debilitating aspects of your grief and any other mental health symptoms which may be troubling you. By focusing on specifics, you can begin to understand why the grief has remained or intensified and start to address the underlying feelings or needs which have prolonged it in your case. Once you have identified the real reasons for the problem, you can learn techniques and methods to deal with those facets in ways that honor your relationship with your loved about also allow you to preserve your health and grow from the experience.
It is possible for you to grieve in a healthy way without drugs or alcohol and without suffering from additional problems by either denying your grief or allowing it to take over your life. The Serenity Oaks Wellness Center wants to help you survive and even thrive in the most difficult circumstances. We understand the pain, difficulty and sadness of losing a loved one or suffer a major change in your life, but you deserve peace and wholeness no matter what your external circumstances may be. We are here to help you get through this. You deserve it.
Call 844-720-6847 to speak with a Serenity Oaks Wellness Center representative today. We look forward to giving you more information about how an individualized approach that honors you and your loss and treats your specific substance abuse challenges can help you cope with your grief and addiction and live a healthy life again.