Loss and acute grief

The Indelible Year

I’ll be honest, I grappled with how to begin this e-Alert – and how to end it. Because for one year now we’ve been coping with that thing that’s always there, whether we address it directly or not. Everything that’s happened in 365 days – all the complex but “normal” passages of life – have, inevitably been measured against a sense of grief, both personal and collective.

Over the past year, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the psychological implications of 9/11 – the post-traumatic stress disorder, the feelings of loneliness or powerlessness, and the concept of “survivor guilt” that we all suffered as a nation.

But when we think about the impact that grief has on us, we can’t overlook the serious physical implications it brings.

Easier said than done

On the evening of Saturday, November 28, 1942, a fire broke out and spread quickly through a popular Boston nightclub called the Coconut Grove. Almost 500 people perished in the devastating blaze, and it took every firefighter and policeman in the city to deal with the destruction and its aftermath. This event produced one of the first and most influential clinical studies on loss and acute grief. For several months, Erich Lindemann, M.D., a Boston psychiatrist, interviewed survivors and bereaved relatives of the Coconut Grove fire. His report appeared in the “American Journal of Psychiatry” in September, 1944, and included this passage:

“The picture shown by people with acute grief is remarkably uniform. Common to all is the following syndrome: sensations of somatic distress occurring in waves lasting from 20 minutes to an hour at a time, feelings of tightness in the throat, choking with shortness of breath, need for sighing, and an empty feeling in the abdomen, lack of muscular power, and intensive subjective distress described as tension or pain.”

Dr. Lindemann clearly understood that grieving carries both an emotional and a physical response. Later studies have come to recognize some of the most common physical reactions associated with grief, such as: listlessness, fatigue, weight loss, irritability, insomnia, loss of appetite, and gastrointestinal complications. On the surface, these may seem like temporary conditions that will disappear as the grieving process runs its course. However, all of them can lead to more serious illnesses.

And while it’s really the best thing we could do for ourselves, there’s something almost impertinent about suggesting to someone who is grieving to be sure to stay active, get plenty of rest and maintain a nutritious diet.

What you need, when you need it

As Sigmund Freud pointed out in a 1917 essay titled “Mourning and Melancholia” “after a lapse of time it (grief) will be overcome, and we look upon any interference with it as inadvisable or even harmful.”

But until grief is overcome, it’s critical that we do whatever we can to limit the long-term impact of grief. Granted, this advice may be better directed to family, friends and co-workers of those who are experiencing grief. So, if someone you care about is grieving, rest assured that you can help.

In terms of specific nutrients, those experiencing grief will benefit from any source that provides high levels of B vitamins – which can be helpful in times of depression and stress, but are also often depleted during those times. In addition to supplements, good dietary sources of vitamin B are: tuna, salmon, avocados, bananas, mangoes, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, poultry and meat.

A grieving person may also benefit from additional magnesium in their diet, available through whole grains, nuts and leafy green vegetables.

And to help them manage the psychological impact, there are common herbs like valerian root, chamomile, black cohosh, rosemary, and St. John’s wort that can help control the emotional roller coaster.

There’s no cure for grief, obviously, but there are ways to address, and even avoid, its physical side effects, until the moment comes when we turn the corner and are ready to embrace life again.

In remembrance,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute