(Excerpted from our book, Lost My Partner – What’ll I Do? Revised and Expanded Edition).
The mourning process is often described as feeling as though you’re stuck on a roller-coaster.
The mourning process is often described as feeling as though you’re stuck on a roller-coaster.
Nobody chooses this ride, but once it starts, you have to hold on tight and trust you’ll eventually be back on solid ground. The first few dips can be unsettling, and just when the track straightens out and you think you can finally relax, there may be a few more dips before you get to the finish.
The hopeful news is, if you don’t try to jump out before the ride ends, and if you have someone (or a group) beside you for support, the dips will come less frequently, and you’ll recover more quickly.
“How long will this ride take?”
In most cultures of the world, the period of mourning is traditionally one year, however, the answer is different for everyone.
How long yours lasts depends on:
1) Whether your spouse/partner’s death was sudden or expected and the circumstances of his/her death. An expected death generally gives you time to do some anticipatory grieving. A death caused by sudden and/or unusual circumstances will take longer to mourn, because there was no chance to prepare for the loss.
The hopeful news is, if you don’t try to jump out before the ride ends, and if you have someone (or a group) beside you for support, the dips will come less frequently, and you’ll recover more quickly.
“How long will this ride take?”
In most cultures of the world, the period of mourning is traditionally one year, however, the answer is different for everyone.
How long yours lasts depends on:
1) Whether your spouse/partner’s death was sudden or expected and the circumstances of his/her death. An expected death generally gives you time to do some anticipatory grieving. A death caused by sudden and/or unusual circumstances will take longer to mourn, because there was no chance to prepare for the loss.
2) The emotional climate of your relationship with your spouse/partner. Troubled marriages tend to take longer to mourn.
3) How you’ve mourned previous losses in your life.
4) The ways you’ve observed family members mourn, which gave you (rightly or wrongly) a model of how to grieve. Was it important to appear “strong” and unemotional?
5) Whether you’ve lost anyone else recently. You may feel overwhelmed by “still another loss.
In part 2, we’ll offer ways to know when your mourning period is winding down.
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