The Physical Effects of Grief on the Body & Mind

This is an excerpt from an article written on Eterneva.

My grandmother was 97 and our family knew she was nearing the end of her life. She lived a full and relatively healthy life. However, that didn’t mean there was an easy way to say goodbye to someone that’s been with me since day one.

I sat by her side as she cried to me in pain, begging to die. She was in pain and suffering and I sensed it would be my last time to hold, see, and talk to her.

When she passed a few days later, I felt a sense of relief. She was no longer suffering. Although I started crying when I got the call, there was a lightness that took over as if I was being lifted out of my own body.

Then, after a couple of days, physical manifestations of grief set in.

I remember the months after my grandmother passed clearly, as they were marked with physical sensations I had never experienced before in my life.

I walked around feeling like I was carrying 20 extra pounds in my body. My stomach was in knots, my breath was shortened, my appetite vanished, and it felt like I was navigating life in a fog. My concentration vanished, I could feel my body drooping, and my mental health suffered.

When my grandmother left this earth, so did a piece of me. I knew her death was coming, yet there was nothing that could prepare me for the physical effects of grief.

Read more about the physical effects of grief on the body and mind here.