This is what I learned from grief counseling:
Bereavment is like the fire that burns at the door to a room. Everyone must go through the bereavement process when somebody dies and it hurts any which way you look at it. You can stay in one corner/place of the room and like the fire, it will totally engulf you.
Or, you can take the painful steps to walk out of the door and get burned. Meanwhile, as you move to a new life/free space, the fires snuffs out. Either way involves work and pain.
What is the difference between grieving and bereavement?
Grieving is to cause the emotion of sorrow and is triggered by the sudden loss of somebody (or thing).
Bereavement is the loss of a loved one leaving one feeling alone.
The two go hand-in-hand as a process with no definite time period when someone has died.
Thus, the saying, "During your hour of bereavement," means during the time you feel "lonely."
This is when traditionally, friends and family come together to be "near" the person who has lost a loved one and this is the time when friends and family need to be around while the "bereaved" person adjusts to life without their loved one.
Can you help somebody snuff out the fire of breavement?
The National Alliance on Mental Illness at
www.nami.org The Center for Loss at
www.centerforless.com The American Association of Pastoral Counseling at
www.aapc.org Is on the other side of the fire...
Agnes B. Levine
Author of: "Cooling Well Water: A Collection of Work By An African-American Bipolar Woman" ISBN 0975461206 Winter 2008 Release Pending
www.myspace.com/coolingwellwater (Subscribe Now)
Founder/President: Levine-Oliver Publisher, the Exclusive publishing home of Swaggie Coleman. Visit Swaggie's Voice© at:
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Posted By: agnes levine
Monday, October 27th 2008 at 6:58PM
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