Bereavement Leaflet .pdf

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expect his death to bother me. I even keep seeing him walking down a street, I
chased after a total stranger yesterday and felt a complete fool.”
How do people feel in the early stages of bereavement?
Many people describe being in shock after being told of a death of a relative or
friend. They may experience panic including heart palpitations and breathlessness
or numbness and either are very weepy or unable to cry at all. Others calmly deal
with all the practical arrangements and may appear uncaring, but are likely to feel
the impact of their loss at a later date. Sleep may be a problem with difficulty in
getting to sleep, waking in the middle of the night or both, exacerbated by images
and/or thoughts of the person who’d died.
How do people feel in the weeks and months following bereavement?
There is no set time on how long bereavement lasts and it is possible that even years
later another event/experience can trigger feelings of loss. Nor are there any set
stages, you can feel a variety of different emotions in the space of a few minutes and
then carry on normally for a while or some feelings can last days or weeks.
Some people are agitated for quite a long time after a death and may cope by
keeping very busy all the time or find it difficult to focus on anything. For some
agitation can lead to feelings of panic that could include breathlessness, heart
palpitations, tingling, dry mouth and dizziness. Others may feel weepy, tired, have
low moods and find it difficult to be motivated or sociable.
Some people feel guilty and keep reviewing their relationship with the person who
has died and the circumstances of the death, wondering what they could have done
When the person who has died had experienced a long period of ill health and pain
relatives often report feeling guilty that they feel relief that it is all over, but others
are surprised that they don’t feel relief.
People often feel angry after a death, especially if someone died suddenly and they
were unable to say goodbye or it was a traumatic death. People involved in caring
for the person who has died including family members are often the target for this
anger as they ask “why didn’t you do more?”
Issues can arise over other people’s reactions to your loss. Some people are clumsy
or inconsiderate in what they say and occasionally people will avoid contact