The way we grieve our losses is impacted by many factors including: our own unique coping style, our history of previous losses, our support systems and, the way we view the loss. The way we grieve is also impacted by the kind of loss we have had, in other words who died and what is the nature of your relationship with that person.
There are some common aspects to each different kind of loss. The death of my mother affects me differently than the death of your mother affects you, because we are different people. But we have some things in common. We might both feel like orphans, particularly if we have no other parent. Maybe we are both struggling with difficult relationships with our siblings, now that our parent has died.
It can be helpful to look at different kinds of losses and see some of their commonalities. This helps us normalize our experience and helps us better understand what we are going through.
Caregivers have a unique kind of grief called Chronic Anticipatory . Illness and anticipated death have a long term accumulative impact. There are so many losses that the dying individual and their loved ones experience every day, often over long intensive periods of time. Caregivers often feel exhausted and may even feel relief as a part of their grief, which may seem confusing. They can be heard saying, “I am so tired, it all feels like one long day”