Five Tips for Dealing with Grief After Your Senior Passes
Once your senior passes away, you’ll be left to deal with your grief and that of the rest of your family. These tips might help a bit.
Lean on Friends and Family
Friends and family can help you to work through your feelings if you let them. There’s something about communally sharing grief that can be healing. Reach out to your family members and your friends if you haven’t heard from them for a day or longer and see how they’re doing. The contact may help both of you.
Take Care of Yourself
Deep in the throes of grief, it’s incredibly easy to find yourself in a position where you’re no longer taking care of your own basic needs. You might be sleeping too much or not at all or eating foods that are not healthy for you. Whatever you normally do to stay healthy and to take care of yourself is what you need to do now. It’s difficult, but it’s important.
Avoid Making Big Decisions for a Time
Major decisions made right now are likely to be colored by your feelings in ways that they wouldn’t be if the situation were different. If it’s possible at all, wait to make big decisions until you’re feeling more emotionally stable. Decisions that can’t wait will need to be made with as much thought and planning as you can reasonably put into them.
Talk about Your Lost Senior
Some families find it painful and upsetting to talk about the senior who has passed away. That can leave emotions even rawer. Try opening up and talking about your lost relative. Share stories with other family members about your senior, especially stories that you love or that make you laugh. Keeping your senior’s memory alive is important.
Don’t Wait to Get Professional Help
One of the worst things that you can do is to wait too long to talk to a professional about how you’re feeling. End-of-life care providers can put you in touch with bereavement resources that can help you to work through your feelings. You don’t have to go through this time of grief alone and isolated.
There’s no right way to deal with your feelings after losing an elderly family member. But as your senior’s primary caregiver, you might be the one that other family members are turning to as they manage their own grief, so take care of yourself.
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