Grief can be a powerful emotion influencing someone’s mental and physical state. It’s when someone is experiencing a loss of some sort, whether losing a job or someone you love. It can often make people feel hopeless and bleak.
In some people, grief can be persistent or act as a trigger for the onset of a mental illness. Here’s a look at what grieving is and if grief can cause a mental illness.
What Does Grief Consist of?
People suffering from losses can be challenging. It can make someone feel many emotions that become hard to cope with. There are some usual stages of grief that most people have heard of, including:
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
These stages aren’t linear, which means they can happen in almost any order, and people can go through the stage several times. People can experience a wide range of feelings and symptoms, including:
- Crying
- Sleep problems
- Lack of energy
- Feeling apathetic
- Eating too much or too little
- Avoiding social situations and withdrawing from relationships
- Trouble concentrating
- Questioning your spiritual beliefs, life choices, and goals
- Feeling angry, guilty, lonely, depressed, empty, or sad
Can Grief Cause Someone to Have a Mental Illness?
Grief can, in someone instances, lead to mental illness. It doesn’t cause a mental disorder but can be the trigger for one. Grief can be the starting point for several mental illnesses such as depression, alcohol or substance abuse disorders, or anxiety disorders such as PTSD, phobias, or panic disorder.
Although not everyone’s grief can lead to a mental illness, some people may have mental health problems like chronic depression. It’s common for grieving people to go through a stage of depression, but some people can move past it within a certain period. However, some people may experience chronic depression from losing something or someone, which may require professional guidance to treat the mental illness.
Read More About How Grief Can Cause Mental Illness