Language
Country/Area
No result found
The Emotion-Body Connection: How Does Grief Affect Our Health?
Grief is a response to the loss of something significant, especially the death of a person or other living being with whom one has developed an emotional connection. Although grief often focuses on the emotional response to loss, grief actually has multiple dimensions: physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, cultural, spiritual, and philosophical.
Grief over loss is not just an emotional response; it involves a whole range of physiological and psychological processes.
The state of loss is called bereavement, and grief is the response to that loss. Many people are familiar with grief related to death, but many types of losses in life, such as job loss, declining health, or the end of a relationship, are sources of grief. Losses can be categorized as physical or abstract; physical losses concern something tangible or measurable, such as the death of a spouse, while other types of losses may be related to some aspect of a person’s social interactions.
The Grieving ProcessBetween 1996 and 2006, doubts grew about a universal and predictable “emotional pathway” from distress to “recovery,” and we came to understand grief as a complex process of adaptation to loss. In 1981, Simon Simshaw Rubin's dual-track model provided a deeper focus on the grief process, measuring the long-term impact of the loss on people's lives.
The main purpose of the dual-track model is to enable the individual to "manage and live within the reality of the deceased's absence" and to restore normal biological functioning.
In the model, track one focuses on biopsychosocial functioning, which includes anxiety, depression, physical symptoms, etc. "In Track 1, all aspects of individual functioning are addressed across emotional, interpersonal, physical, and traditional psychiatric indicators," Rubin noted. The degree of grief is influenced by the degree of closeness to the deceased, and Track 1 is a response to very stressful life events that requires adaptation, change, and integration.
The second track focuses on the ongoing relationship between the griever and the deceased, focusing primarily on the level of connection and shared memories. Many attributes, including imagination/memory, emotional distance, positive effects, and negative effects, are important aspects of this track. The result of this track is the ability to recognize how change occurs after grief and mourning. By making this two-track division into the key aspects of the grief process, individuals are able to examine and understand how grief has impacted their life following the loss and begin to adjust to this new life.
Grief reactions are seen as a natural way of dealing with loss, but persistent, intense grief can sometimes become debilitating enough to be considered a disorder.
The connection between emotions and the body
According to scientific research, when emotional experiences trigger grief, there are corresponding reactions not only on the psychological level but also on the physical level. fMRI scans show that grief triggers localized inflammatory responses in brain areas associated with emotion processing. In fact, these corresponding physical reactions show that our mental state is closely connected to our body.
Science has found that when we are in grief, emotional pain not only affects our mental health, but is also closely related to the body's physiological responses.
The evolution and risks of grief
From an evolutionary perspective, grief, while seemingly costly, may play an important role in social interactions. The pain of loss reminds us of our commitment in the relationship and prompts us to search for the lost connection. At the same time, grief responses to the loss of significant family or social roles may have lasting effects on family relationships and even increase the risk of marital breakdown.
Grief may in some cases be linked to health risks, such as heart disease or long-term physical and mental impairment, according to research.
Prolonged grief reactions, called complicated grief disorder, can affect both physical and mental health and may require special psychological therapies to cope with. Grief can manifest in many forms, from genuine tears to laughter that seems to be "lost," and can reflect how an individual is adjusting to loss.
Conclusion
Everyone's response to grief is unique, and understanding these emotional and physiological connections can help us better cope with the pain and challenges in our lives. Grief is more than just the emotional pain of loss; it can also change our overall health. Do we truly understand the physiological effects of grief and have learned how to cope with them healthily?
