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Grief
Michelle Sohail
School of Social and Behavior Social Science, Marymount University
General Psychology: PSY 101
December 1, 2023
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There are a lot of things that a human being will experience through out their life time, grief
happens to be one of them.
It is usually one of the most life-changing experiences that a human being can go through. It can change
one’s lifestyle, affect their mental health, change them as a person or make them go quiet for the longest
period. Grief can also impact an individual's usual activities. Those activities can include
school/education as the focus and concentration can be highly poor during times of hardship, grief can
also heavily affect one’s communication skills with people causing their social and interaction skills to
not be the best and they could still be in shock or denial, and other activities can include work life, and
etc. The focus and concentration is not the best during such times, which is why it is advised to take some
time off or a break from certain activities that require a lot of one’s energy.

I experienced grief at a very awful time unfortunately, but the timeline is not something that is
within our control.
I had to go through grief at the start of college, first semester as a first-year student. It was a life
experience that i believe i will never recover from, although there are some studies that state if an
individual seeks mental health help or services there is a possibility, they can recover from it (Nordal,
2020). In conclusion, mental health services can help a lot (McCoy, 2021). The first death that anyone
experiences will always be engraved in one’s head forever. It is the first time a human has witnessed
something so traumatic and devastating. It can have a person go in shock (Nordal, 2020). According to
the Kubler-Ross model there are 5 stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance
(Tyrrell et al., 2023). Denial is when one is adamant to the situation and not acceptive to the reality that
the person they lost is not present on the Earth anymore (Tyrrell et al., 2023). The next stage is anger, the
individual feels frustrated and very furious about the loss of their loved one. In this time, they will be
questioning a lot of things (McCoy, 2021). It is better to be understanding of the individual when they are
going through this stage (Tyrrell et al., 2023). It is advised to not take their behavior personally and
understand the individual and just be there for them (Brody, 2018). The next stage is bargaining, this is
when an individual attempts to distract itself from the emotions they feel by surrounding themselves with
friends or even family. After bargaining comes depression, this stage is usually long (Tyrrell et al., 2023).
This is the stage where an individual comes to an understanding of the emotions they will feel by the end
of this stage. This stage feels like a rollercoaster, with different negative emotions throughout (Tyrrell et
al., 2023). Therapy is one’s best friend during this stage. The last stage is acceptance (Tyrrell et al., 2023).
This is the stage where the individual comes to terms with reality and accepts that their loved one is no
longer present with them anymore. No one really “moves” on from it, they just become accepting of
reality and learn to cope and live with it for the rest of their lives.
Grief plays a significant role in the study of psychology as it if the human response to the emotions
an individual experiences during the time of loss of a loved one.
In psychology terms, grief involves certain components such as cognitive, behavioral and emotional
components (Tyrrell et al., 2023). Each act upon differently to a human. Grief is not only an emotional
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feeling, most of the times it can affect an individual physically too. The individual grieving can
experience high blood pressures, chance of heart-attack or poor appetite (Finkbeiner, 2021).
In conclusion, grief is a part of life. Any individual who experiences grief has to eventually go
through the five stages of grief. It takes time but one then comes to an understanding and acceptance of
what their reality really is. Although I am still in the process of grieving I have hope that one day I will be
okay and recovered from it.
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References
Brody, J. E. (2018, January 15). Understanding grief. The New York Times. https://

www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/well/live/understanding-grief.html

Finkbeiner, A. (2021, April 22). The Biology of Grief. The New York Times. https://

www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/well/what-happens-in-the-body-during-grief.html

McCoy, B. (2021, December 20). How your brain copes with grief, and why it takes time to heal.

NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/20/1056741090/grief-loss-holiday-brain-healing

Nordal, K. C. (2020, January 1). Grief: Coping with the loss of your loved one. American

Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/families/grief

Tyrrell, P., Harberger, S., Schoo, C., & Siddiqui, W. (2023, February 26). Kubler-Ross stages of

dying and subsequent models of grief. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507885/