The Understanding of Grief as a Mental Condition - Essay Example

Grief left untreated can be detrimental to one's health and even result in death Man is to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another. Joseph Addison Abstract In a psychological context grief is how we as humans respond to loss and it has a medley of social and physical implications for the one affected. Grief can stem from many causes and is especially damaging to mental and physical health. Empirical studies have even sought out to prove that if it is left untreated, grief can ultimately result in loss. This essay seeks to explore the reasons behind grief and whether it can be "treated" like a medical condition through psychological measures. There will also be a discussion of the different sources and forms of grief as psychological phenomena. . Introduction Central to the understanding of Grief as a mental condition, are the different reactions people have to it , and recent academic opinion tends to avoid the traditional conceptions of grief being a " process" which is predicable in every sense. The new ideas seek to compare and evaluate the different responses of people to different kind of grief which has a lot to do with their family and gender orientation as well as religious and spiritual beliefs. A connected concept is bereavement, which implies a loss in ones life of a loved one or family and has the connected danger of transforming into a mental disease. Over the years there have been a number of physical and psychological therapies and counseling which have been developed to counter this traumatic time for people. Yet many people fare better in physical downfalls rather than emotional pitfalls involving grief and loss.The debate goes on about the whether grief "strikes like lightning" and kills slowly. Many academics like Dr. Elisabeth Kbler-Ross have spoken about how grief has certain stages involving anger and denial. Other psychologists deny the cyclical treatment of grief and look towards common experiences of people with in the themes of numbness ,yearning and despair. 1The stages of Grief It can be said that there is a difference between normal and abnormal grief (Engel 1961) and grief can be defined as "involving suffering and an impairment in the capacity to function which may last for days weeks and even months .We can identify a constant etiologic factor namely .real ,threatened or even fantasised object loss. It fulfils all the criteria of a discrete syndrome with relatively predictable sympatomatology and course. The grieving person is often manifestly distressed and disabled" Another academic notes that, "Whenever one's identity and social order face the possibility of destruction, there is a natural tendency to feel angry, frustrated, helpless, and/or hurt. The volatile reactions of terror, hatred, resentment, and jealousy are often experienced as emotional manifestations of these feelings."2 Medical and psychiatric opinion suggests that grief causes physical and stress related illnesses like bodily pain and asthmatic difficulties. Grief has also been recorded to cause death (Engels 1961) and it is said that it increases the risk of suicide amongst the aggrieved. Some writers have argued that there has to be a line drawn between grief and abnormal grief (Wilkinson 1999).The symptoms of abnormal grief are both physical and mental and include conditions like nightmares, asthma, insomnia, and loss of appetite. (Engels 1961 and Wilkinson 1999).Many people will try and avoid the pain by abusing medications and others report loss of libido and even hallucinations.(Engels 1961). The diagram on the left explains in simple terms the relationship between grief, bereavement and mourning The biggest misconception has been traditionally to assume for the people struck with grief that "time heals all wounds". Much rather if the condition of Grief is not treated and addressed properly then it becomes a case of "Time wounds all heals", because untreated patients have been known to get worse and worse with time showing behavioural malfunctioning (Engels 1961, Kaplan 7th Ed.)Complicated grief arises from deaths and unexpected events. The patient can be left in shock, as his or her mind and body refuses to accept the paradox in front of them. Complicated grief is unlike normal grief from which the aggrieved recovers .Complicated grief is like quick sand where the patient needs clinical help to stop them from sinking deep into fatal illness. Types of Grief To analyse how the impact of grief on the population will differ in terms of statistics, gender, race ,age and socio-economics factors it is worth having a look at the behavioural, psychological, biological perspectives affecting the patients. This involves having a look at the different types of grief and how children, parents and spouses will react to them. Therefore the type of loss plays a key factor in shaping its treatment. Loss of parents has been recorded to affect children severely and the impact is even worse in cases where When a parent dies, children may have symptoms of psychopathology, but they are less severe than in children with major depression. It is suggested that very small children do not usually react too much to loss due to their short attention spans. But slightly older children have profound reactions to grief and loss as it is at this stage they are in the process of developing their bonds of trust etc(Kaplan 7th Ed.).They might react by not accepting or understanding the fact of death at all and it is at this point when they get traumatised by the death of a parent which is also very confusing to them. Statistically pre-teen and teenage children are more mature, however studies have shown that they might touch extremes of "overachieving" or "depression" after such a loss(Engel 1961,Stroebe 2007) Death of Children is also a leading cause of grief amongst the parent population. This can be either through miscarriages or the death of an older child. Although it is said to affect both parents deeply, mothers are particularly prone to deep psychological damage.(Stroebe 2007). Death of a spouse may be at any stage of life and it always involves losing the better half, not only emotionally but financially as well. This is a dangerous time for any person left in isolation(Stroebe 2007) as it increases the chances of the grief becoming a serious illness or even fatal. Death by grief Research has shown that sex and age patterns, education and ethnic origin, household size and number of children and have a varying impact upon the likelihood of death. The Tables in Appendix A (See down below)(Stroebe 2007) shows that white people are more likely to suffer from death as a result of bereavement. Another interesting finding is that Widowers are more likely to die from such grief than Widows. As mentioned before Women take a more negative impact from the death of a child than Men.(Stroebe 2007).The tables also show that older people are more likely to survive death of spouse than young people. Stroebe 2007 also reports that widows and widowers or orphaned children are more likely to die from " accidental and violent causes and alcohol-related diseases, moderate for chronic ischemic heart disease and lung cancer, and small for other causes of death." Studies also reveal that in the first week of bereavement the death rate is 66-fold for widowers and 96-fold for widows(Stroebe 2007). "Bereavement is attributable in large part to a so-called broken heart (i.e., psychological distress due to the loss, such as loneliness and secondary consequences of the loss, such as changes in social ties, living arrangements, eating habits and economic support."(Strobe 2007) Therapy for grief According to Hensley(2006) "approximately 40% of the bereaved meet criteria for major depression within a month of the death. At a year, approximately 15% of the bereaved are depressed and at 2 years, the figure is approximately 7%." Complicated or traumatic grief ,needs to be controlled in time or it becomes very difficult to counter it in the later stages of the trauma when it is too late. Doctors usually prescribe therapy and counselling along with some drugs to deal with the depression. Research shows that these drugs may at times be effective for depressive symptoms but grief and bereavement require more than that .Hensley (2006) notes, "Open-label trials of medication for bereavement-related depression have shown promising results for desipramine, nortriptyline, and bupropion SR. One double-blind controlled trial supports the use of nortriptyline, but interpersonal psychotherapy did no better than placebo. In all these trials, depressive symptoms improve more than bereavement symptoms. Effective open-label treatments for traumatic grief include paroxetine, nortriptyline, and a form of psychotherapy called traumatic grief treatment". However the author goes on to stress that grief counseling becomes necessary when the bereaved or aggrieved is in a mental state which is "beyond repair." Such counseling will allow the people suffering from grief to express themselves in terms of loss, anger and frustration etc.They are encouraged to seek medical attentions,avoid alcoholism and cope with themselves.(Kaplan 7th Ed).Their staggering appetites and lack of sleep are also addressed through discussions and encouragement. Grief therapy becomes imperative if the patient shows persistent symptoms of depression and resentment. This is likely to occur even when they are not responding to grief counseling (Stroebe 2007). Conclusion After the discussion of the possible causes and types of grief which can prove to be dangerous or at their worst fatal, I have been able to discern a lot of myths around the phenomena of grief management. Drugs do play an important role in treatment and race and gender have a large impact on how a person will perceive their loss. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of empirical data collected by eminent academics and some of my conclusions were drawn which agree with the topic line, that is ,Grief left untreated can indeed have fatal consequences both in direct or indirect ways. The diagram below shows the reactions of children and families to therapy for grief (Stroebe, 2007) References 1. Kaplan,Harold ,Sadock.J.Bejamin,Jach A ,Grebb,Synopsis Of Psychiatrybehavioural Sciences,Clinical Psychiatry,7th Ed.Chapter 2 Human Development Throughout The Life Cycle. 2. G.Engel,Is Grief A Disease ,Psychosomatic Medicine 23 (1961)Pp 15-27 3. L.Kopelman,Normal Grief:Good Or BadHealth Or DiseasePhilosophy Psychiatry And Psychology I (1994) Pp209-20 4. Stephen Wilkinson 1999,Is Normal Grief A Mental Disorders,Philosophical Quarterly 5. The Grieving Process By Michael R. Leming And George E. Dickinson 6. Margaret Stroebe,(2007), Henk Schut ,Health Outcomes Of Bereavement ,Research Institute For Psychology And Health, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands 7. Shackelton,1984,Psychology Of Grief,Penguin Press Ltd 8. Paula L. Hensley, 2006, Treatment Of Bereavement-Related Depression And Traumatic Grief,(Available At Science Direct). Read More