Typical Grief Reactions

It has been said that grief can mimic insanity.  When you are in grief, it is certainly a turbulent time - on many levels.  You are not crazy, you are not going insane - you are grieving.  Here is a list of typical grief reactions:

Physical:  Headaches, dizziness, exhaustion, muscular aches, menstrual irregularities, sexual impotence, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, tightness, hollowness, over sensitivity to noise.

Affective:  Anger, guilt (including death causation, cultural role, moral, survivor, and recovery grief), anxiety, helplessness, mania, emancipation, relief, sadness, shock, yearning,  numbness, blame.

Cognitive:  Depersonalization, disbelief, confusion, idealization, preoccupation with image, search for meaning, sense of presence, hallucinatory experiences.

Behavioral:  Loss of patterns of conduct, interpersonal changes, withdrawal, avoiding reminders, over activity, crying, appearance of traits of the deceased, tiredness.