Types of Grief PIII

Masked grief can happen when for example one is the pillar of the family, so they suppress the grief and then suddenly they lash out in anger at others. Some may think that person is numb, or has no feelings, but for any number of reasons they are suppressing the grief. They may not even be aware that their lashing out suddenly is a sign of the fact that they are suppressing and not facing the grief, which of course is not healthy, not by a long shot.

Inhibited may be similar to masked grief, but in this instance the body literally become ill because the person is unable or unwilling to constructively express their grief. They may have headaches and other physical symptoms that doctors may not find a physical cause for. What we don’t constructively manifest externally, such as grief, can then manifest internally. It is important to constructively express grief, not hold it in like some secret in a vault.

Collective grief is often what happens when let’s say someone in the community that was well loved and respected, well liked goes missing or is the victim of a crime, or if a community is a victim of fraud or any kind of trauma. In this case the community feels the pain as a whole and healing needs to take place not only individually, but as a community.

Cumulative grief happens when the grief was not fully healed in the past, so something will happen, like a missing child in the area and it bring back the memory of the pain one endured in a similar circumstance. If you had a nasty divorce and then your best friend’s daughter is going through that as well, it can trigger feeling of grief, pain etc…as if putting back in time to when you went through it.

There are other types, a few more, but they are parallel to some already here spoken of. In my next few posts I will discuss coping mechanisms for grief. There is no one size fits all, so each of us must find the most constructive and healthy way to grieve.

Until next time. Namaste.