Recently our lives have been plagued with loss. Loss of contact with family and friends, loss of professional goals, loss of hobbies and interests, and most profoundly, for some of us, the loss of loved ones. This pandemic has taken us away from the support systems and usual activties we would turn to in order to fill our lives with meaning and connection. If you feel anxious, down, irritable or a sense of uneasiness, it could be grief.
I was recently invited to speak on the topic of grief and COVID-19 for the Swiss programme SRF Forward:
https://www.srf.ch/news/srf-forward/verstorben-vergessen-wie-trauern-waehrend-der-pandemie
Grief is a universal and familiar experience for all of us, however grief during a worldwide pandemic is something entirely new
– Clare Killikelly
What can you do about it?
5 steps to mental wellbeing
Further reading:
https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief
Duan, L., & Zhu, G. (2020). Psychological interventions for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The Lancet. Psychiatry, 7(4), 300–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30073-0
O’Mahony, S. (2020). Mourning our dead in the covid-19 pandemic. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 369, m1649. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1649
Holmes, E. A., O’Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., … Bullmore, E. (2020). Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(6), 547–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30168-1