If you are a man going through the grieving process, you may find that you are using some of these coping strategies. Although common, they do not relieve the grief. Hopefully, you can recognize what isn’t working for you, evaluate their purpose, and understand that you must now deal with your grief squarely rather than avoiding it.
Avoid coping strategies that bring more harm than good.
Unique Components of Female Grief Women tend to express grief by: • communicating thoughts and feelings with others, verbally expressing their grief • demonstrating more intensity in their grief • reporting more anxiety and depression • feeling angry toward family members or friends for not sharing their grief • feeling overwhelmed with their emotions • starting the grief process very soon after the initial shock • being afraid to be happy or laugh again Women are more likely to reach out to people around them, to talk more openly about their grief. They are more inclined to display their grief to others. Under stress, women tend to nurture those around them or make connections with those that they feel safe with. Women also have societal expectations of being more emotional. Women tend to spend more time talking about their feelings. They may also be uncomfortable with feeling angry or vengeful. They may be overwhelmed with the amount of emotion they are experiencing and not quite sure how to process all of those emotions. When a tragedy happens, women tend to stop caring about life’s typical needs. Getting the dishes done, the bills paid, or making sure the laundry is clean may not be the priority any more. After an initial period of shock, women, more so than men, tend to begin the process of grieving right away. They may not realize what they are doing, but the emotions that are being
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