Essay about Anticipatory Grief

Grief is a natural response to a major loss, though often deeply painful and can have a negative impact on your life. Any loss can cause varied levels of grief often when someone least expects it however, loss is widely varied and is often only perceived as death. Tugendhat (2005) argued that losses such as infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, adoption and divorce can cause grief in everyday life. Throughout our lives we all face loss in one way or another, whether it is being diagnosed with a terminal illness, loss of independence due to a serious accident or illness, gaining a criminal record (identity loss), losing our job, home or ending a relationship; we all experience loss

The Two-Track Model of Bereavement is a model that states loss is conceptualized along two axes. Track I pertains to the biopsychosocial functioning in the event of a loss and Track II pertains to the bereaved’s continued emotional attachment and relationship to whoever is deceased. The effect of Track I is seen through the bereaved’s functioning, including their anxiety, their self-esteem and self-worth, and their depressive affect and cognitions. Noting the ability of one to invest in life tasks after experiencing a loss indicates how they are responding to the loss of the deceased. This Track is seen as an expression similar to one of trauma, or crisis. Track II holds that the bereaved has difficulty physically separating from the deceased. This can be seen in emotional, interpersonal, or cognitive ways. It is shown through imagery and memories that the bereaved experiences surrounding the deceased, whether positive or negative, as well as the emotional distance from them. These pictures in the bereaved’s head explain both the cognitive and emotional view of the person who has died (Rubin, 1999).

The life transition of death and dying is inevitably one with which we will all be faced; we will all experience the death of people we hold close throughout our lifetime. This paper will explore the different processes of grief including the bereavement, mourning, and sorrow individuals go through after losing someone to death. Bereavement is a period of adaptation following a life changing loss. This period encompasses mourning, which includes behaviors and rituals following a death, and the wide range of emotions that go with it. Sorrow is the state of ongoing sadness not overcome in the grieving process; though not pathological, persistent

Loss is a phenomenon that is experienced by all. Death is experienced by family members as a unique and elevated form of loss which is modulated by potent stages of grief. Inevitably, everyone will lose someone with whom they had a personal relationship and emotional connection and thus experience an aftermath that can generally be described as grief. Although bereavement, which is defined as a state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one, is a universal experience it varies widely across gender, age, and circumstance (definitions.net, 2015). Indeed the formalities and phases associated with bereavement have been recounted and theorized in literature for years. These philosophies are quite diverse but

Death is a universally experienced phenomenon. In the United States alone, over 2.6 million people die each year (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). For practitioners, it is of utmost importance to better understand the process of grief to develop better interventions for bereaved individuals.

Death and dying is a natural and unavoidable process that all living creatures will experience at some point in life, whether it is one’s own person death or the death of a close friend or family member. Along with the experience of death comes the process of grieving which is the dealing and coping with the loss of the loved one. Any living thing can grieve and relate to a loss, even children (Shortle, Young, & Williams, 1993). “Childhood grief and mourning of family and friends may have immediate and long-lasting consequences including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, behavioral disturbances, and school underachievement” (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2006, p. 61). American children today grow up in cultures that attempt to avoid grief and

Grief is the act following the loss of a loved one. While grief and bereavement are normal occurrences, the grief process is a social construct of how someone should behave. The acceptable ways that people grieve change because of this construct. For a time it was not acceptable to grieve; today, however, it is seen as a necessary way to move on from death (Scheid, 2011).The grief process has been described as a multistage event, with each stage lasting for a suggested amount of time to be considered “normal” and reach resolution. The beginning stage of grief is the immediate shock, disbelief, and denial lasting from hours to weeks (Wambach, 1985). The middle stage is the acute mourning phase that can include somatic and emotional turmoil. This stage includes acknowledging the event and processing it on various levels, both mentally and physically. The final stage is a period of

(Casarett D, et al. 2001). This summary first interpret the build of grief, bereavement, and lament. It then differentiate the lament reactions of anticipatory grief, accustomed or ordinary grief, stage models of normal grief, and complicated or prolonged grief. Psychosocial and pharmacologic treatments are described. (Casarett D, et al.

Research studies are vital for understanding how to make practice and policies the best they can be for service users. Social work is a diverse and complex field, and research studies in this area not only allows social work professionals to expand their personal knowledge within their practice, but it can also benefit their clients and even society from a policy or legislative level. In discussing the vital importance of such research I will be looking at the work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1969), whereby she forms a model of stages of grief. Before the 1970s, psychologists treated death as taboo. However Kubler-Ross’ book, ‘On Death and Dying’ outlined the need for understanding human loss, signalling a new era of open discussion on the topic.

The loss of a loved one is a very crucial time where an individual can experience depression, somatic symptoms, grief, and sadness. What will be discussed throughout this paper is what the bereavement role is and its duration, as well as the definition of disenfranchised grief and who experiences this type of grief. I will also touch upon the four tasks of mourning and how each bereaved individual must accomplish all four tasks before mourning can be finalized. Lastly, with each of these topics, nursing implications will be outlined on how to care for bereaved individuals and their families.

According to the journal article the purpose of this research is discover how bereavement after caregiving or unexpected death effects elderly spouses. One of the hardest events that an individual may face over the course of his or her lifetime is the death of a spouse This article gives a great background on how bereavement plays a major part into how elderly who cared for their spouse or had an unexpected death of a spouse reacted to their loss. Throughout this study two predictions were given one being that highly stressed caregivers would show improvements in well-being at the 18-month follow-up, particularly within the domain of negative psychological affect and the second one stated that spouses experiencing unexpected deaths would significantly

This essay explores several models and theories that discuss the complexities of loss and grief. A discussion of the tasks, reactions and understanding of grief through the different stages from infants to the elderly, will also be attempted.

Grief, just like death, is a natural process of life that everyone goes through after losing someone, or something dear to them. Everyone’s grief is unique. It might manifest itself in someone by having intense emotions, such as: sadness, and loneliness, as well as having physical symptoms such as: depression, anxiety, mood swings and much more. With all things considered, it is widely accepted that grief does occur commonly in 5 stages. According to Web M.D., the first stage that commonly tends to occur in humans is denial. When people first learn of a loss, they tend to think, “This isn’t really happening.” They may feel shocked, or numb to the fact. This is a common, but temporary way to deal with the rush of overwhelming emotion.

Grief can have several common features. One is guilt. How much of this guilt can be perceived Bowlby states stems from the ‘pain following loss, which is the result of a sense of guilt and a fear of retaliation’. (Bowlby, 26. 1980) At these times focus is essential. Guilt needs to be evaluated and resolved since it is one of the least endurable features of mourning. Therefore, gaining an understanding of guilt can enable a bereaved person to work through this phase otherwise as Parkes noted, ‘it can often lead to physical illness’. (Parkes, 261. 1986)

Human mortality is quite often an arduous reminder that there is a limited amount of time in which we get to live. I know this fact all too well as I have personally lost a number of close family members. Before reaching adulthood, I had lost my paternal grandmother, three maternal great-grandparents, paternal step-grandfather, two paternal great-aunts, and a paternal great uncle. In general, people are living for as long as they ever have thanks in part to a number of advancements in modern medicine. Fortunately, all of my aforementioned family members lived long, full, and happy lives. Still, my childhood was consistently met with loss and, because of this, both figuratively and quite literally played a role in shaping me as a person. For example, my middle name, Donald, stems from the memory of my paternal grandfather who I was never fortunate enough to meet. This essay will explore a number of general psychological reactions to dealing with loss such as involuntary coping, voluntary coping, ++++++. In addition to this, this essay will also analyze how some of that researched evidence applies to my unique situation.