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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Being in survivor mode

On Tuesday night, GriefWorks had the discussion of being in survivor mode and developing coping skills to get through grief. There were two new families there. One lost their 20 yr old son to suicide, the other (ex-husband) to cancer.

While these losses are sad to hear about and difficult to imagine, there are ways of getting through and the biggest thing that came out from the group was leaning on God. Some others were writing, exercise (get those happy endorphins going), taking care of yourself (which is sometimes very hard to do when you just plain don't care), volunteering, and knowing that grief works differently with everybody.

Key example: One lady lost her ex-husband (sad) from sudden heart attack 5 years ago. She is now (mostly) gone through the grief but her teenage son is just now having to face it and she's kinda angry that he hasn't gotten it yet. Same thing with K and G. It's been a year and half and they are just now starting to get help. They had their first session last night and I talked to G this morning.

She told me that she and K were both looking forward to the next session and she actually sounded happy over the phone (which is a first in a long time!) and that she finally got to get a good night's sleep (another first!). R is still getting through as well and it may take a while before she is finally at complete peace within herself but I am thankful that all three are slowly getting to where they need to be. Yes, it can be stressful, nerve-wracking, and even depressing sometimes but, as long as God's there to carry, openness to help, and a willingness to try, the only way is UP!

More to follow....

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