In this Tuesday’s (2) edition of the Medical Correspondent chart of Novo Dia, neurosurgeon Fernando Gomes spoke about the phases of mourning and how to deal with losses.
The subject may come up on a date like today, November 2, All Souls’ Day, especially considering that more than 600,000 families have lost someone to Covid-19 in Brazil alone.
The doctor explains that grief can affect people in different ways. And it is important to respect each one’s time and the way each person finds to deal with the absence of the other.
“It is important to respect this phase, which is different for each person. It is not possible to measure the pain and suffering of each one, but there is a process of brain resilience that ends up bringing, after a certain time, some comfort”, explains the specialist.
According to Gomes, grief consists of five phases. Are they:
- Initial stage – individual tends to isolation and denying the situation;
- Anger phase – individual struggles with what happened;
- Bargaining phase – individual tries to make trades and tends to have thoughts like “this happens to everyone”;
- Depression phase – individual feels deep sadness;
- Acceptance phase – the individual ends up understanding the meaning of this entire process that happened.
The neurosurgeon also says that although mourning is a very painful process – and that, sometimes, the person needs religious and/or professional support from psychology and psychiatry -, the tendency is that, over time, they start to remember that with love, affection and longing, free from bad feelings.
“There are phases of mourning and understanding that there is no point in wanting to skip or run over these steps, because it is part of the process of psychic maturation, it helps the process.”
Reference: CNN Brasil
