How Does Compounded Grief Affect Our Coping Abilities?

Over a lifetime, everyone must experience several different types of grief. With each event, if we did not properly move on from it continues to pile up, which is what we refer to as compounded grief.

We are not able to move on from a tragic even like a death, and another one happens we are piling things onto an already weak structure. If you think of a vulnerable structure, like a paper card tower, for each card that is pilled on the foundation becomes even unstable. As well, each time a new hard is placing on the structure it risks collapsing the structure as a whole. Each card in this situation is representative of a tragic event. Through each tragic even if we do not move past the previous event, our foundation becomes even more unstable, allowing us to not work on the events at the base, as more piles on top.

Sometimes it may not be an easy grieving process but we need to learn how to move past it, because the more hurt you allow yourself to feel that chances of you hitting rock bottom grow exponentially. The term compounded grief refers the bundling all of the grief you have experienced in a lifetime and holding onto it, making one event to cause you to spiral out of control.

Although everyone goes through the grieving process at different rates, it is important that you move through those steps. If you are finding it hard to move through them, it is time to seek help. Compounded grief and coping abilities are not to things that work well together. You cannot heal while you are trying to cope with more tragic events. You may view it as weakness to ask for help but it is the first step in the right direction to building a stronger foundation.

If you have any further questions on the topic, please contact us at Wagg Funeral Home.