Image Credit: Eutah Mizushima via Unsplash
While the majority of people naturally associate sadness or depression with grief, other very common emotions evoked by the grief response are anger, fear, and guilt.
Anger, a very potent emotion, is always present during the time of grief but may not always be recognized. Anger can take on many forms and present itself in a variety of ways, from irritability to fist-pounding rage. It’s not uncommon for the bereaved to deny their anger or, for that matter, to be completely unaware of it.
In times of deep sorrow and grief, fear is an emotion not often discussed. Fear may manifest itself as mild anxiety or sheer terror. A spouse may feel fear about being alone or lonely. A parent may fear that she’ll never recover from the death of a child, or a child may fear the loss of the other parent, too.
Guilt, like anger and fear, is neither good nor bad. It simply is. Guilt can’t be stuffed down without future consequences. It needs to be acknowledged and experienced.
While feelings of anger, fear, and guilt are often difficult to deal with, it is only by allowing these feelings, in all their dimensions, that freedom to heal and be whole again finally arrives.
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