Grief is a part of the life of all those people who experience a significant loss, for example, the loss of a loved one, a pet, a certain professional position or job, a change of residence or home, etc. Grief causes negative emotions that can be very draining. Therefore, if you have ever been through grief, you may have become emotionally exhausted as a result of the intensity of the emotions experienced.
In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about how it manifests emotional exhaustion in the duel. Discover what it is, what its symptoms are, what emotions are manifested in grief and some tips to heal situations of exhaustion due to grief.
What is emotional exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion refers to when a person endures a host of strong negative emotions for an extended period of time. This causes her to feel exhausted and without the strength to continue supporting the situation.
The negative emotions themselves they wear out and diminish the vital force of people. Therefore, when a person experiences certain negative emotions for a long period of time, or very intensely, they can end up emotionally exhausted. The duration or intensity of the emotions will depend on each person’s ability to sustain or manage these emotions.
Symptoms of emotional exhaustion in grief
Emotional exhaustion in grief is a more common situation than we could imagine. Going through the entire grieving process involves go through several stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance), each of which will provoke strong negative emotions in the person. Emotional and physical exhaustion as a consequence of this process is something logical and expected.
Some symptoms that reveal emotional exhaustion in grief are:
- Lack of vitality, motivation and strength: Emotional exhaustion causes physical exhaustion that deprives you of physical strength and vitality. Due to physical and emotional wear and tear, motivation is reduced to minimal levels.
- emotional dullness: inability to react emotionally. Emotional exhaustion can produce a kind of internal “short circuit” that blocks and prevents us from responding and managing emotions properly. In this article you will find more information about it.
- Depersonalization or distancing oneself from oneself and/or reality: Experiencing so many negative emotions for a long time depletes our internal resources. A defense mechanism to avoid unnecessarily consuming emotional resources is to psychologically distance yourself from reality. If you do not feel the situation, it will not hurt and it will not be necessary to implement means to combat the pain.
- Learned helplessness: inability to react to painful situations. Emotional exhaustion in grief can deprive the person of strength and incapacitate them to react to the situation they are experiencing.
What emotions are manifested in grief
Many negative emotions are manifested during grief. All of them sometimes lead to emotional exhaustion of the affected person. The most common emotions that appear during grief can be grouped according to the stage of grief that one is going through. Below, we see how emotional exhaustion manifests itself during grief:
- Denial stage: During this stage, the most characteristic emotions are shock, denial, emotional blockage and/or.
- Anger stage: This stage is characterized by feelings of frustration, anger, resentment, emotional detachment, distrust or suspicion, among others.
- Negotiation stage: In this third stage of grief you can experience depersonalization again, emotional emptiness, fear, loneliness, etc.
- Depression stage: During this stage the person usually feels all the pain of the loss expressed in great sadness, anguish, anxiety, depression and emotional exhaustion.
- Acceptance stage: this is the final stage of grief and, during its transit, the person who is about to overcome this difficult experience will feel empowerment and inner strengthening, joy for acceptance, sadness for the last farewell, calm and inner peace for overcoming definitive of the loss.
How to heal emotional exhaustion in grief
To heal the emotional exhaustion that, on many occasions, the experience of grief can produce, we recommend following the following tips:
- Take care of your diet: Food intake is totally related to emotional health. To strengthen yourself despite the overwhelming emotions experienced, it is important to take care of your diet.
- Do some regular, moderate exercise: Moving revitalizes and helps recover the vital force lost during emotional grief.
- Maintain frequent contact with nature: observe the trees and the sky, listen to the birds singing, walk barefoot through the mountains, etc. All of this will provide inner calm and great strengthening.
- Seek emotional support: Relying on the social network will be of vital importance to avoid or reduce emotional exhaustion in grief. In this article you will see what the .
- Adopt a pet: Animals are great healers of emotions by selflessly accompanying us in our worst moments and by rejoicing us with their innocence and eternal joy. Even so, we must keep in mind that adopting a pet is an act of great responsibility, therefore, it is not advisable to do so if you do not feel a certain sympathy for animals, or in the depths of your heart you do not feel capable of addressing them. this care
- Attend therapy: In many cases, professional help may be convenient to help properly navigate the different phases of grief and overcome emotional exhaustion.
If you follow these small and simple tips, although you will not immediately overcome the grieving process, which requires going through its different stages, you will considerably alleviate emotional exhaustion, favoring a better and more positive outcome of the process.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to How emotional exhaustion manifests itself in griefwe recommend that you enter our category.