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After the loss of a friend or family member, sometimes it’s tricky to know if you’re grieving or stressed. While both are natural responses to the death of someone you cared about, here’s information so you can recognize the ways in which grief and stress are similar as well as different.

This article also includes information on broken heart syndrome, destructive ways to manage these feelings as well as constructive ways to deal with grief and stress.

How Are Grief and Stress Similar?

Grief

When you’rebereaved, you are mourning the loss of someone important to you. Common responses include:cryinga lot, trouble sleeping, inability to concentrate and loss of appetite.

Stress

When you experience stressors or challenges in your life, like losing one of your parents to cancer, it can lead to physical, mental, and emotional responses. Stress is your body’s response to that strain or threat. Of course,how you perceive the stresswill shape that response.

According toYale University Health, common symptoms of stress include insomnia, inability to concentrate, aches and pains as well as diarrhea or constipation. They are similar as you can see to signs of grief.

How Are Grief and Stress Different?

Stress can come and go, but its causes are different. Those who are stressed feel too much pressure often about things such as finances, work or relationships. Stress triggers the body’s fight-or-flight reaction. When stress persists,  it is called chronic stress.Chronic stresscan show up in the body as high blood pressure, heart disease and irritable bowel syndrome.

Broken Heart Syndrome

Being heartbroken after loss is no slight matter. The stress and grief can triggerbroken heart syndrome, which occurs when someone experiences sudden acute stress that can rapidly weakne the heart muscle.Also known asTakotsubo cardiomyopathy,signs of broken heart syndrome include chest pains, shortness of breath or an abnormal heart rhythm.Usually temporary, this condition can lead to long-term injury and impairment to the heart.

A study revealed an alarming trend. Middle-aged and older women are being diagnosed with broken heart syndrome up to 10 times more frequently than younger women and men.

Therefore it’s imperative to seek help from your physician and mental health counselors if your grief and stress persist.

Treatment

If you still feel deep sadness after a loss, you may be experiencing something calledcomplicated grief.Recently, it was officially diagnosed as prolonged grief disorder. If grief symptoms persist after about a year and negatively impact you everyday life, psychologists can likely help you.

Mental health counselors may prescribe complicated grief therapy, a type of bereavement counseling that includescognitive behavioral therapy (CBT),interpersonal therapy (IPT), and understanding ofattachment theory.

Some of the techniques used in complicated grief therapy include telling the story of the person’s death, separating the grief from the trauma, organizing grief, dealing with guilt and other feelings, and finding ways to honor your loved one.

Destructive Ways to Cope

Most would agree letting grief and stress take over isn’t the best solution. Not so constructive ways to cope with the stress in your life right now might include:

Healthy Ways to Cope

Besides paying attention to your nutrition, exercising regularly and getting adequate sleep, here are healthy ways you can deal with and get through this difficult time.

Writing might be one good way to help you come to terms with your loss. Expressing deep emotions can ease the grief. Those who suppress their feelings might be increasing muscle tension, heart rate and blood pressure. Writing is good because it boosts mood and the sense of well-being as well as immunity.

Writing can be therapeutic. In one study, scientists instructed some participants to write about a difficult event while control participants were instructed to write about an interesting life event. Researchers who assessed right after the assignment and one week later found that the first group were “emotionally stronger, less upset, and less cognitively avoidant about the particular difficult life event they wrote about.” Scientists believe that writing can support an individual’s emotional functioning and help a person cope with stressful events.

Getting Help

Grief and stress are both normal human responses to many situations we may face in our lives. If you feel like you are having a difficult time coping with grief and/or stress, seeking help from amental health professionalcan provide support and strategies for you to begin feeling better.

2 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Pattisapu VK, Hao H, Liu Y, et al.Sex- and Age-Based Temporal Trends in Takotsubo Syndrome Incidence in the United States.J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(20):e019583. doi:10.1161/JAHA.120.019583Stapleton CM, Zhang H, Berman JS.The Event-Specific Benefits of Writing About a Difficult Life Experience.Eur J Psychol. 2021;17(1):53-69. Published 2021 Feb 26. doi:10.5964/ejop.2089

2 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Pattisapu VK, Hao H, Liu Y, et al.Sex- and Age-Based Temporal Trends in Takotsubo Syndrome Incidence in the United States.J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(20):e019583. doi:10.1161/JAHA.120.019583Stapleton CM, Zhang H, Berman JS.The Event-Specific Benefits of Writing About a Difficult Life Experience.Eur J Psychol. 2021;17(1):53-69. Published 2021 Feb 26. doi:10.5964/ejop.2089

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Pattisapu VK, Hao H, Liu Y, et al.Sex- and Age-Based Temporal Trends in Takotsubo Syndrome Incidence in the United States.J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(20):e019583. doi:10.1161/JAHA.120.019583Stapleton CM, Zhang H, Berman JS.The Event-Specific Benefits of Writing About a Difficult Life Experience.Eur J Psychol. 2021;17(1):53-69. Published 2021 Feb 26. doi:10.5964/ejop.2089

Pattisapu VK, Hao H, Liu Y, et al.Sex- and Age-Based Temporal Trends in Takotsubo Syndrome Incidence in the United States.J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(20):e019583. doi:10.1161/JAHA.120.019583

Stapleton CM, Zhang H, Berman JS.The Event-Specific Benefits of Writing About a Difficult Life Experience.Eur J Psychol. 2021;17(1):53-69. Published 2021 Feb 26. doi:10.5964/ejop.2089

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