Grief
I forgot an assignment last month. Now, that might not seem like a big deal, but I am in in a Doctorate program; I have participated in a LOT of academics. I have 3 degrees and several certifications; I have done an s-ton of assignments, and never forgotten one until last month. Why? Grief. Did you know forgetfulness is a symptom of grief? My dad died in October and it threw me off my game, even though I “knew better.” [1][2]
Here is a picture of my dad a few months before he died.
Grief (mourning, loss, and trauma) hijacks your brain. It takes your mental, emotional, and cognitive resources. Grief steals the focus and attention you would normally have available for other things. Your attention, time, and energy and even your health are gobbled up for the grief monster and not available for your everyday tasks. Grief affects you physically as well as emotionally:
Physically
- Sleep – Grief can disrupt sleep.[3]
- Headaches[4]
- Appetite and digestive issues. [5]
- Cardiac issues.[6]
- Decreased immunity.[7]
Cognitive and Mental Health
- Driving impairment. [8]
- Increased anxiety.[9]
- Depression symptoms.
- Reduced cognitive (thinking) function. [10]
- Multi-tasking and executive function.
Stress, of which grief is a unique and particular kind, has specific and known impact on a person. It’s important to be aware of your life in the context of your own recent history. A helpful tool for this is the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory. This tool can be used as a self-administered assessment to understand your risk for illness in the short term, and to understand the cumulative effect of any additional stressors.
[1] https://whatsyourgrief.com/physical-grief-symptoms/
[2] https://www.everydayhealth.com/news/how-grief-can-make-you-sick/
[3] https://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/mental-health/a26707/coping-with-grief-physical-symptoms/
[4] https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/grief-stages/20190711/how-grief-affects-your-body-and-mind
[5] https://www.verywellmind.com/physical-symptoms-of-grief-4065135
[6] https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/when-loss-hurts-6-physical-effects-of-grief-0520187
[7] https://www.everydayhealth.com/news/how-grief-can-make-you-sick/
[8] https://www.verywellmind.com/physical-symptoms-of-grief-4065135
[9] https://modernloss.com/10-ways-to-overcome-grief-related-anxiety/
[10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4163517/
**Person-centered language note: As a leading clinician in substance use disorder assessment, treatment, and recovery, I am committed to elevating the language around mental health and substance use disorder. This means I will use “alcohol use disorder” rather than “alcoholic.” It means I will use “person with a substance use disorder” rather than “addict.” I minimize my use of the term addiction because it carries stigma, often people have their own relationship with the word accompanied with misinformation. I use the term recurrence or return to use rather than relapse. However, it’s important that people searching for help get connected with services that benefit them. In this regard, people are not searching “am I a person with a substance use disorder?” They are searching “am I an addict?” They do not search, “can a high functioning person have an alcohol use disorder?” They search “am I a high functioning alcoholic.” They don’t search “treatment for people who have a recurrence” but do search “how do I stop being a chronic relapser?” As such, I want to affirm people with substance use disorders with my care, which includes language but I also need to structure my business in a way that google searches find my material.
