Different stages of grief
The process of grieving can be compared to the workings of a pinball machine – where mourners’ movement between different stages of grief, such as shock and depression, may be unpredictable.
The process of grieving can be compared to the workings of a pinball machine – where mourners’ movement between different stages of grief, such as shock and depression, may be unpredictable.
Authors in this month’s issue of Mental Health Practice journal, Margaret Baier of Baylor University and Ruth Buechsel of Brooke Army Medical Centre in Texas, claim they are not suggesting “grief is a game”, rather the metaphor can help people understand grieving is not a “linear process”.
As in a pinball machine, there are triggers which can prolong or even restart the process. For the mourner, these could be the anniversary of a death or a special event they used to share with their loved one.
This model can be used in therapy by healthcare professionals to help people understand that their responses are normal. It may also be adaptable to help those coping with separation, divorce, loss of employment or financial loss, the authors claim.
They identify numerous models and factors for understanding grief in the literature as helpful in predicting coping and adjustment in bereavement.
However, they say many of the models are misinterpreted as linear. Grieving patients often speak of feeling as though they are ‘bouncing’ from one stage to another, which elicited the image of a pinball.
Researchers say their model illustrates the process in a way that helps bereaved people see and understand their emotional processes – helping them to normalise and move through the experience of grief.
This “normalisation” may help people relax and better process grief, make sense of a seemingly chaotic experience and be prepared when grief is triggered by other events or prolonged, as in the process of complicated grief.
Share the emotions you experience when you’re grieving a loss.
