(Newswire.net — September 12, 2021) –Grief is one of the most difficult emotions to experience. It doesn’t matter if it’s grief over a lost family member, friend, pet, or something else; it can be paralyzing and debilitating. When someone experiences this type of pain, they need support from their friends and family to move on with life again. Here are 5 ways you can help a grieving person cope.
1) Create a safe space for the grieving individual.
Don’t push them to talk about their feelings or say that they should be over it by now. You don’t know what’s going on in their head, and if you were grieving, you would want someone to let you take your time with everything too. Be patient and understanding of whatever explanation is given to you.
Please don’t make them feel guilty for grieving, either. They need to grieve, and it’s not something that they can control at this time. The last thing a grieving person needs is another reason to be sad, as well as justification of why they should hurry up and get over their grief already.
2) Don’t try to fix the problem.
A grieving person needs a shoulder to cry on, and someone who will listen to them talk about their feelings, not a solution for what they’re going through. When someone is grieving, it takes time to get over whatever has happened for them to move forward again. You must express your willingness to listen and understand what they are going through.
Understandably, you want to help them feel better about whatever it is they’re experiencing, but the best thing you can do for someone who is grieving over a loss of some kind is just there for them in their time of need, not offer advice or try fixing things for them. Telling someone to get over it, for example, will not help the situation and will only result in making things worse between you two as friends or family members.
3) Don’t attempt to compare their pain with your own experiences.
Everyone grieves differently, and you don’t know what someone else is going through, so it’s not right for you to make comparisons between the two of you to try and relate. The last thing a grieving person needs is another reason why they should be feeling bad about their loss.
If you’re grieving over a loss of some kind, don’t expect that everyone will understand what you are going through. If someone is trying to compare the two of your experiences with each other, then it’s time for them to back off from being so insensitive about things. It might not be intentional on their part but comparing grief is never a good idea.
4) Give them space.
If you’re trying to help someone who is grieving, then you mustn’t crowd the individual too much; give them some time on their own to be by themselves and process everything for a while before they can move forward again with life without having to worry about dealing with all of this pain at once.
It’s not your job to try and take care of someone else. You can’t help them if they don’t want it in the first place so give them some time on their own before you go trying to push yourself into their life again when they’re just not ready for that yet.
5) Let them know that you’re there for the long haul.
Sometimes, this is all a grieving person needs to hear to start feeling better about themselves and their situation; someone who will stick around no matter how much time passes by so they don’t have to go through it alone. Don’t make promises you might not be able to keep, though.
People say things they don’t mean all the time, and even if you think this will make someone feel better, it might not be what’s best for them in the long run. If you tell a grieving person that everything is going to get better when it probably won’t, then you’re just setting yourself up for failure as well as the person you’re trying to help. If they ask for your support, then it’s alright to give them whatever they want but don’t promise anything that might not happen, so set yourself and this individual up for failure by saying things you probably shouldn’t say at all.
In conclusion, there are so many things you can do to help someone grieving, but these five points should be considered.