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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAngry? Depressed? You Could Be Grieving Over World Events
https://www.forbes.com/sites/remyblumenfeld/2019/04/28/angry-depressed-you-could-be-grieving-over-world-events/If youve noticed that youve been unusually angry, depressed or generally in disagreement with things as they are, you could be experiencing grief. No one needs to have died for you to be grieving. It could be that you feel an important avenue has become closed off to you, or that something is standing between yourself and your deeply held values. You may be sad, angry or depressed because of world events.
I trained as a grief counselor and if I were to share the two biggest things I learned they would be these:
-When we grieve, it is not so much for the person who has died as it is for who we once were with them when they were in our world. We are grieving the unconditionally loved son or daughter, the dependable wife or husband, the joyful best friend, who we will never be again to the mother, father, partner, child, friend or dog who has died.
-Grief is not reserved for our feelings of loss towards a person. We also need to grieve who we once were and will never be again. We can grieve our spent youth or our lost fertility; we need to mourn the opportunities and prospects which time and aging have taken away.
Recently, some of my coaching clients have been sad and angry because of Brexit, climate change or specifically the election of the 45th President of the United States. Their feelings often border on grief. The novelist Ian McEwan still feels a visceral emotion about Brexit, telling the Observer, Sometimes, I wake in the morning wondering what is bearing in on me, and then I remember.
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Vinca
(50,342 posts)Since my 70th birthday I've been kind of depressed which has been weird since aging has never bothered me. It's only a number. I've come to the conclusion that the birthday was the trigger and it's the real prospect our democracy is swirling the drain that's been getting to me. Trump is definitely bad for your health. I'm hoping to get my garden started this weekend and plan to hide in the lettuce patch for a good part of every day until my mood improves.
G_j
(40,372 posts)for many. We are all connected..
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)Clarity2
(1,009 posts)3 people in my family have died since Trump became president. Another 2 have cancer. While that grief manifested more obviously in a normal, healthy way, my body response to the grief of seeing what has happened to our country is just the same. I wake up feeling like I cried all night, even though I haven't. In fact, I wish I could cry, but it's more suppressed. It's stuck in a loop of anger, rather than coming out in a healthy way. I know so many people who are aging rapidly, including my mother, which makes me incredibly sad. Never mind the loss of family members to "the cult" which is another type of grief. Then top this off with other ongoing events & tragedies in our lives which we have to compartmentalize in order to survive this.
treestar
(82,383 posts)though I guess it could have applied to the deplorables. With more cause too, since the arc of the universe bends towards justice. This is a setback but in the end progress will be made.
2naSalit
(87,012 posts)one of the main reasons I go to counseling regularly. My counselor says that most of their clients are in some state of depression over the world issues and much more so since 11/2016.
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)Last edited Fri May 10, 2019, 06:30 PM - Edit history (1)
he was going to win. The wave of shock, grief and fear have been with me ever since. It is awful
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)myself included.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)and turned upside-down by this clown, his enablers and his sick cult. I feel like I was punched in the gut and haven't been able to catch my breath since. I used to believe that most people were decent and honest. Not anymore.