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Grief Brain

June 28, 2024

What is Grief Brain?

Grief can make you feel forgetful, spacey, and unable to express your thoughts. Losing a loved one is a natural, yet difficult life event, and it is one of the greatest stressors we face as humans. Grief affects us emotionally and physically, leading to a symptom known as grief brain. This condition can cause trouble sleeping, concentrating, and remembering simple things, but these effects are usually temporary.


How Grief Affects the Brain

Grief can rewire the brain, worsening memory, cognition, and concentration. Acute grief symptoms, such as yearning and sadness, are most intense during the first six months. For most people, these symptoms decrease over time, but if they last longer than 12 months, it may be diagnosed as prolonged grief disorder.


Prolonged Grief Disorder

Prolonged grief disorder occurs when coping becomes difficult after a loved one’s death, affecting 2.4% to 6.7% of bereaved adults. Symptoms include extreme emotional pain, avoidance of death reminders, identity disruption, emotional numbness, and severe loneliness. Prolonged grief can also lead to major depression, so reaching out to a mental health professional is crucial if symptoms feel overwhelming.


Can Grief Damage Your Brain?

Chronic grief can push the body into long-term survival mode, affecting attention, memory, decision-making, language, information processing, and cognitive functions. The severity of grief may be tied to mental health, with resilient individuals showing fewer depressive symptoms and greater emotional stability over time.


Next Steps

If grief feels overwhelming, it's important to seek support from a mental health professional to help navigate the grieving process.

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If you have been keeping up with the news lately you may have noticed several distressing stories about a lack of care demonstrated by some funeral directors when being contracted by bereaved families after the loss of their loved one. There is no government regulatory authority for funeral directors in New Zealand but all funeral directors must comply with legal requirements around care of the deceased as specified in the Burials and Cremations Act. In addition, there are requirements for fair pricing and contracts under the Fair Trading Act, as well as obligations that apply under the Consumer Guarantees Act. We are members of the Funeral Directors Association so adhere to the ethics and standards that are part of our membership. We know that transparency of pricing is important along with ensuring that the options chosen work with families’ budgets. We regularly provide detailed pricing estimates along with information to help with farewell planning. Our many years of experience have also shown us that it is important to be looking at the ‘big picture’ when choosing a service provider. When you engage Gillions to look after arrangements for your loved one you will have the comfort and assurance that they will be well looked after from the time we transfer them to our care until the time we take them to the crematorium or cemetery. Our care for you continues beyond this time as we know that grief does not have a time limit.
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