It is normal to feel a sense of shock when someone close to you has died. Experiencing shock can mean you have a physical and emotional reaction. You may feel dizzy, nauseous, dazed, numb or empty. As part of feeling shocked you may not believe that the news is real.
At the first shock of loss, experiences and conversations can be blurred or hazy. You may not yet feel any of the deep feelings of grief. People in shock often appear to be behaving normally without a lot of emotion because the news hasn't fully sunk in yet.
Shock feels like a numbness, a fog, a disbelief. It is the body's way of protecting us from early pain. It can last days or weeks with the bereaved either unable to cry or unable to stop crying. Both are natural reactions to grief.
The word “shock” can also refer to the feeling of having no reaction at all to the news of losing loved ones. To expect to experience a range of emotions on a regular basis is natural. Everyone's shock is unique and can endure for a few days or weeks.
Shock. The most overwhelming and common reaction to a sudden death is shock and uncertainty. This results in feeling disconnected to your feelings or to other people; it can seem as if you are living in a dream. The initial news and stages of grief are often characterized by disbelief.
Shock: The First Stage of Grief
This can feel like a massive blow, sending a person into a state of emotional shock. During this earliest stage of grief, a person may feel unable to process the meaning of the news. Shock can last just a few moments or for many days.
Everyone reacts to traumatic events differently. Depending on the circumstances, you may feel completely numb or you may experience panic, anger, or disassociation. You may also experience physical symptoms such as a rapid heartbeat, breathlessness, or tightness in your throat.
The stages of the grieving process include shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance. This process helps people heal after experiencing loss.
➢ Grief is what we think and feel on the inside when someone we love dies. Examples include fear, loneliness, panic, pain, yearning, anxiety, emptiness etc. ➢ It is the internal meaning given to the experience of loss. ➢ Mourning is the outward expression of our grief; it is the expression of one's grief.
In other words, grief is the internal meaning given to the experience of loss. Mourning is when you take the grief you have on the inside and express it outside yourself. Another way of defining mourning is “grief gone public” or “the outward expression of grief.” There is no one right or only way to mourn.
Shock stages include initial, compensatory, progressive, and refractory stages. Shock results from a cause of some type that leads to decrease tissue perfusion to organ/tissue's cells. When the cells are deprived of perfusion they lack oxygen to function and can suffer hypoxic injury.
Common Grief Reactions
Emotionally, strong feelings of sadness, loneliness, fear, anxiety or resentment and anger can occur. Some people who are in mourning may feel a sense of guilt when they start to re-engage in activities and relationships, as if they are somehow betraying the person who died.
The five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief.
Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
Some pagan traditions believe that the soul of a recently deceased person continues to wander the earth for forty days; other religious traditions believe the soul will rest in the Lord's hands after death. The number 40 is often used in many spiritual traditions, but the specific reason is unknown.
Shock keeps you numb until you are ready to move on. Shock and numbness are your introduction to grief. Characteristics of shock and numbness are most intense the first two weeks after the loss of your baby.
The pain is caused by the overwhelming amount of stress hormones being released during the grieving process. These effectively stun the muscles they contact. Stress hormones act on the body in a similar way to broken heart syndrome.
Acceptance. The last stage of grief identified by Kübler-Ross is acceptance. Not in the sense that "it's OK my husband died" but rather, "my husband died, but I'm going to be OK." In this stage, your emotions may begin to stabilize.
Shock is a serious condition that occurs when your body doesn't get enough blood flow. Symptoms of shock include low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, shallow breathing, anxiety and fatigue. The first step in shock first aid treatment is calling 911.
Sometimes, they may appear a few hours or a few days later. And, in some cases, weeks or months may pass before the stress reactions appear. The signs and symptoms of a stress reaction may last a few days, a few weeks or a few months and occasionally longer depending on the severity of the traumatic event.
But there is no timetable or timeline for grief. It is completely normal to feel profoundly sad for more than a year, and sometimes many years, after a person you love has died. Don't put pressure on yourself to feel better or move on because other people think you should.