Grief and its Effects
Cipriana J Arias
Liberty University
Abstract
Grief and its effects is considered in this paper with the purpose of better understanding how it affects a person. Grief is a natural reaction to loss and change which affects all aspects of a person’s life: the physical, emotional, psychological, behavioral, and spiritual. Grief is not expected but will be experienced in a variety of ways such as experienced, sudden, gradual or anticipated. While most people will experience loss at one time in their lives, not everyone responds in the same way or goes through the same process to recover and heal.

Grief and its Effects Life does not come with a manual on how to cope with grief. Is it possible …show more content…

As cited by Feldman (2011), Bargaining can be effective in that some people make goals to delay death and actually achieve them according to Phillips & Smith (1990, Phillips, 1992) (Feldman, 2011, p.611). Once a person accepts that death is inevitable and that bargaining will not change their circumstances, they move on to depression (Feldman, 2011, p.611). There are two possibilities of depression that people may experience, reactive and preparatory (Feldman, 2011, p.611). Reactive depression is experienced due to a realization that life will not be the same and grief is felt for what was (Feldman, 2011, p.611). Preparatory depression is felt due to the realization that they will have future losses (Feldman, 2011, p.611). This is the second to the last phase in Kobres five step theory. The final step in Kubler-Ross’s theory is acceptance. Acceptance is achieved when the person is at peace with the fact that death is imminent and inevitable (Feldman, 2011, p.611). At this stage the person no longer has desire or cares to continue to live, they are just waiting for death.
The Psychological effects of Grief
Losses can lead to discord in relationships, substance abuse, and trauma which in turn can lead to chronic mental and physical health problems. (Pomeroy, 2011).
(Keesee, Currier, & Neimeyer, 2008). (Keesee et al., 2008). The feeling of going crazy is a common feeling for people dealing with loss (Noel,2001). During normal grief, the bereaved person moves