A Comparative Study of the Grieving Process
HLT 310 V Spirituality in Health Care
May 21, 2010.
A Comparative Study of the Grieving Process Grief is the natural reaction to a major loss such as the demise of a loved one. The grief has many components such as physical, emotional, social, mental, and spiritual. A person can feel grief during a serious, long-term illness or with an incurable disease. The symptoms can be a great level of depression, gloominess, guilt, and hopelessness. The common grief responses feelings include numbness, shock, anger, anxiety, loneliness, fatigue, and yearning. The other common grief responses to physical feelings such as not being able to sleep, tightness in the chest, shortness of breath, lack of energy, panic attack-like symptoms, and lack of appetite. Though grief is a normal and anticipated reaction to loss, a severe or lengthened grief brings about serious issues. We humans have the tendency to build strong tie of affection or relationship or attachment with others. When these bonds are broken, as in death, a strong emotional reaction occurs. The spiritual care giver’s challenge in grief and bereavement is to balance the activities of strengthening and disputing (O’ Brien, 2011, p.321) As healthcare professionals, it is our responsibility to understand the grieving process, and give support to those who suffer and go through grieving process, and bring back them to normal life.
This paper will compare and contrast the grieving process as defined by Kübler-Ross and the story of Job with another religion; it will also compare the relationship and interaction between joy and the grieving models. Finally it will conclude with my own preferred method of handling grief, and how it has changed my view of grief.
Kubler Ross was a psychiatrist who devoted her life to the study of death and dying. In her book On Death and Dying, Kubler explains five stages of grief which consists