Grief And Stress: Understanding The Connection (And How to Cope)

When you lose a loved one – be they be your friend, family, or even pet – it can leave a gaping hole in your heart. Along with all the conflicting emotions and grief, it’s common to experience stress. Grief and stress are both natural reactions to the loss of a loved one, but are they truly similar, or is there a difference between these two reactions?

Grief brings feelings of helplessness, denial, and confusion, whereas stress evokes feelings of overwhelming anger, anxiety, and guilt. There are situations where you might experience the symptoms of grief in place of stress and vice versa.

So, how do we separate them? How to know the difference between grief and stress? How does grief affect stress?

This article covers all about the relationship between grief and stress and how you can constructively manage your emotions during tough times.

Are Grief and Stress The Same?

Because of their similar emotions and symptoms, many people confuse grief and stress with one another. When you’re mourning the loss of someone or something, you experience common reactions such as;

• Uncontrollable crying
• Sleep issues
• Loss of concentration
• Loss of appetite
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Inflammation
• Pain, and
• Headache

Normally, we grieve for a period and after a while, we resume our daily life. We never forget the ones we lost, but once we reach the acceptance stage of grief, coping with emotions becomes easier.

However, when you experience stress or challenges, it could cause mental, physical, and emotional distress. Stress is our body’s natural way to react to anything our minds and bodies consider dangerous or threatening. To protect us, our bodies go into flight-fight mode, releasing cortisol and adrenaline.

When we’re stressed, we experience common symptoms such as;

• Insomnia
• Poor concentration
• Aches and pains
• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Trembling, and
• Hot/cold flashes

These symptoms are a lot similar to symptoms of grief, so it’s easy to feel confused between the two.

Grief vs. Stress: The Differences

While grief and stress might seem similar, there are differences between the two. Grief often occurs in waves and could be triggered by a memory. Once you pass the memory, you feel okay once more. This kind of extreme grief occurs in the beginning when you’ve just gone through the loss of a loved one, but as the weeks and years go by, your grief turns into something less intense.

When I talk about stress, let’s just say that it comes and goes. The causes of stress are different but not less traumatic than the causes of grief. We often feel stressed when we face pressure about finances, work, relationships, or life in general. Stress triggers our body’s flight-fight-freeze reaction, which causes high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and stomach cramps. When stress persists for longer than two weeks, it can be labeled as “chronic stress”.

We’re talking about grief and stress, so let’s touch upon a syndrome that encompasses both – Broken Heart Syndrome.

Feeling heartbroken over something might seem whimsical, but it can be quite intense on your heart and mind. The stress caused by a broken heart or grief can trigger acute stress symptoms that can directly weaken your heart.

Broken heart syndrome can cause symptoms such as;

• Chest pains
• Shortness of breath
• Heart palpitations

While these symptoms are short-term, the persistence of these symptoms can cause heart disease in the long run. Did you know that middle-aged women and older women were more likely to be diagnosed with broken heart syndrome than younger men and women?

If you’re experiencing chest pain or symptoms of stress, grief, or broken heart syndrome, then it’s recommended you speak to a professional and get a diagnosis.

How to Treat These Symptoms?

The treatment of sadness caused by grief and distress caused by stress can be done with the help of a professional. If you’re constantly experiencing sadness and distress, then it could be a sign of complicated grief or prolonged grief disorder. Talking to a counselor can help you manage your symptoms and heal.

Counseling approaches to treat grief and even the stress caused by grief can be

cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal therapy (IPT), and attachment theory. With these therapy approaches, you can find healthy ways to release pent-up and unhealthy emotions and begin your healing journey.

What you shouldn’t do when healing is;

• Give up on healing or therapy
• Blame others for the loss
• Become aggressive
• Avoid facing your emotions
• Depend on substances such as alcohol or drugs

What you can do to heal is;

• Pay attention to your body’s needs
• Eat a healthy and well-balanced diet
• Exercise regularly
• Get at least 7–8 hours of restful sleep
• Engage in breathing exercises to release stress
• Talk about your feelings with trusted people in your life
• Reach out to a grief counselor for support
• Look at the loss from a different perspective
• Engage in things that bring you joy
• Practice gratitude, even when you don’t feel it
• Spend time with people who encourage you to heal
• Express your emotions with creative and expressive therapy
• Journal your feelings and thoughts to understand your triggers and how to manage them, effectively

Wrapping Up…

Grief and stress might have many similarities between them, but they’re also different. Both of these emotions are natural reactions to a traumatic event in your life, but how you deal with them changes how you react to these emotions.

If you’re having a hard time coping with symptoms of grief and stress, then don’t hesitate to seek help from a professional who can offer you the right support and strategies to effectively cope with these emotions and begin your healing journey.

You don’t choose to experience these emotions, but you choose how to cope with them. Choose wisely and begin healing today.

I hope this article can help you understand the relationship between grief and stress and how grief affects stress. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Take Care!