Grief

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1 Grief Grief refers to mental distress accompanied by intense sorrow due to the death of a close friend, relative or family member. Grief can be classified as intense grief associated with alteration of heart muscles, thus heartbreak syndrome and heartbreak grief that cause hypertension and risk of blood clotting. Grief focuses not only on the emotional, physical, and cultural aspects but also on social, spiritual, behavioral, and psychological aspects. Berinato (2020) said that grief results in a general feeling of discomfort in that one feels that the world has changed and that things appear differently.

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2 The physical aspect of grief means the loss of something that one can touch or measure. The physical symptoms of grief include chest pains, nausea, fatigue, hollow feeling in the stomach, oversensitivity to noise, lack of energy, and increase or decrease in weight (Granek et al., 2017). Such symptoms lead to increased inflammation, leading to severe health complications and depletion of the immune system, thus susceptibility to infection. Psychological and Social Responses of Grief The psychological responses enable the grieving person to adjust efficiently to an individual's loss by emotional reaction or coping mechanisms. The coping mechanisms protect the individual psychologically, thus reducing feelings of anxiety (Bui, 2018). It also enables individuals to adjust after loss and begin with the healing process. For instance, it can be done by intellectualization in which the grieving person outlines and analyzes issues related to the death of the individual. In combination with the coping mechanisms, an emotional reaction allows the grieving person to express their emotions and feelings associated with loss honestly. Social responses involve the grieving person looking for an individual who can help eliminate the loneliness without judgment and have the perspective of a person who can help him achieve his purpose in life and the right direction. Spiritual Aspects Religion is often cultural but not regarded as a culture among different ethnic groups but instead interacts with culture. This means that every ethnic group has different beliefs and assumptions about the grief and loss of a person in the community. For instance, funeral rites among the Anglicans in America differ in various ways from Anglicans in New York. Besides, Muslims in Egypt express their emotion regarding grief differently from the Muslims in India.


3 Culture-Specific Consideration Individuals are preferably shaped by their culture but not determined by it. Since all groups of people have different cultures, all practitioners should understand the support needs to be required by individuals from different cultures. There are variations in class, religion, generation, and gender in how funeral rites are performed. Some considerations towards grief include questions on who should be mourned, what to be done to the dead, and differences and role of religion in the grieving process besides inclusion or exclusion of mourners from the society (Hawes, 2020). In case of death of a loved most especially a mother's child, due to illness, the young child becomes irritated, anxious accompanied by changes in eating and sleeping habits. The death due to disease among Odisha people is believed to be an evil act, and that the spirits have to be appeased to prevent another death in the community. Talking openly about death in such communities is regarded as social inappropriateness.

Conclusion Grief as a result of sorrow due to the loss of a person leads to discomfort and hopelessness. It is associated with the physical, emotional, and cognitive changes of the deceased. Culture plays an essential role in developing attitudes and concepts about the loss of a loved one, thus providing a platform in which they are expressed. Specific social norms that concern grief and death vary among different people of different ethnic groups.


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References Berinato, S. (2020). That discomfort you’re feeling is grief. Harvard Business Review, 23(03), 2020. Bui, E. (2018). Grief: from normal to pathological reactions. In Clinical Handbook of Bereavement and Grief Reactions (pp. 85-101). Humana Press, Cham. Granek, L., Ben‐David, M., Shapira, S., Bar‐Sela, G., & Ariad, S. (2017). Grief symptoms and difficult patient loss for oncologists in response to patient death. Psycho‐oncology, 26(7), 960-966.


5 Hawes, K. (2020). Life after Loss: Grief Recovery Group Counseling Through a Cultural Lens.


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