Change in place/status: Immigration, divorce, job loss, moving

Anyone on a serious illness journey: their independence, identity, mobility, anticipatory loss of connections to loved ones, isolation etc. “I am losing parts of me”

Becoming a caregiver to a loved one whose health status has changed.

Loss of identity & a sense of belonging (mental health/HIV diagnosis, ending of relationship, refugee experience)

Sense of safety/security. Shattering of an assumptive world (out-of-time losses, accidents, natural disasters, COVID)

Positive changes can evoke grief.

Grief results from both death and non-death-related losses:

Losses range from the concrete loss of a loved one, a pet, a part of a person’s identity through illness, major life passages etc. 

This represents the breaking of a bond or significantly altering it. This type of concrete loss is the most obvious to recognize and respond to.

Any change in your place or status:  ex: immigration, divorce, job loss etc. 

Anyone on a serious illness journey:  grief of all kinds including loss of independence, identity, mobility anticipatory loss of connections to loved ones, isolation etc. “I am losing parts of me”

Becoming a caregiver to a loved one whose health status has changed.

Loss of identity & a sense of belonging (mental health/HIV diagnosis, ending of relationship, refugee experience)

Sense of safety/security. Shattering of an assumptive world (out of time losses, accidents, natural disasters)  COVID: the world experienced a collective shattering of the assumptive world even before the death tolls due to COVID rose

When you lose someone, you lose your relationship with them, social support, loss of future plans and your personal history.

Other traumatic experiences…

Change, even when it’s positive, can evoke grief. (adult child leaving home, getting a promotion)