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Is there really a time line from bereavement? I asked myself this question and looked in to bereavement in more detail, for my own personal reasons, it helped me a lot so I decided to share my finding as it may help someone else to understand bereavement a little more.

What is bereavement and grief?

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bereavement is the reaction to the loss of someone or something that really matters both personally and emotionally. Grief is the complex emotional response to bereavement.

What feelings come form grief?

The characteristics of the normal acute grief response was first described by Lindemann, a psychoanalyst in 1944 after taking notice of reactions of some people that had survived a fire in a night club were nearly 500 people died the survivors showed delayed or distorted grief reactions, which led him to his theories to explain grief. Giving us the five acute responses to normal grief.

1 bodily distress of some type (not eating)

2 thinking of the dead person bringing images to mind often.

3 guilt in relation to the deceased or circumstances of the death.

4 hostile reactions.

5 the inability to function as one had before.

Every one was trying to put a time scale on the bereavement process, and the feelings that came with this a time table was made to attempt to explain the phases of adult mourning and the related feelings, but as everyone deals with grief in so many different ways it is hard to pin point a time but the theory was their for the feelings and phases.

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Phases and the predominant feelings, that begin from the time of death.

1 Numbness = Shock, and disbelief 2 weeks to 1 month.

2 Yearning = Reminiscence, searching, hallucinations, anger and guilt 6 months.

3 Disorganization and Despair= Anxiety, loneliness, fear, hopelessness and helplessness, 1 year.

4 Reorganization= Acceptance and relief, 2 years or more.

I myself is at the phase of reorganization, but it has taken me more than the time suggested after losing my dad. It is surprising that most people know so little about the normal grieving process until they or a close friends are bereaved, in ordinary speech “if I die” rather than “when I die”is the common expression may be this is our way of denning death because we know it’s coming one day.