You may feel alone in it:

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Even when people care about you, grief can feel lonely. You might find yourself thinking:

• No one really gets how much this changed me.

• Everyone expects me to be okay by now.

• I don’t want to burden people with how bad it still feels.

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Grief can also create a strange kind of distance, where the world looks the same, but you don’t feel like the same person inside it. Therapy can be a place where you don’t have to minimize the loss, explain it away, or “wrap it up” for someone else’s comfort.

 

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Grief isn’t only about death:

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Grief is commonly associated with losing a loved one, but it can also show up after other life losses, including:

• A breakup, divorce, or relationship rupture

• Moving, relocation, or leaving a meaningful community

• A job loss or major career transition

• A chronic illness diagnosis or health change

• Infertility, pregnancy loss, or complicated reproductive experiences

• Family estrangement

• The loss of identity, safety, or the future you expected

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If something mattered, losing it can hurt. And sometimes, a current loss may awaken older losses that never had space to be felt.

 

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When grief starts affecting daily life:

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Grief can look like sadness, but it can also show up as:

• anxiety, panic, or dread

• irritability or anger that feels unlike you

• numbness or disconnection

• difficulty sleeping, eating, focusing, or getting through the day

• guilt, regret, or “if only” spirals

• feeling stuck in the moment you found out

• fear that healing means “letting go”

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Many people are scared that moving forward means leaving someone behind. In therapy, we can make room for a different truth. Healing doesn’t erase love, but rather can often help you carry love with less suffering attached.

 

Some losses change not only what you’ve lost, but who you are and how you see the future. When grief reshapes identity, it can take longer to integrate. You do not have to do that alone.

 

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You can’t force grief to be over, but you can learn to live with it differently:

A common instinct is to try to outrun grief. Stay busy, push it down, “be strong,” keep functioning. Sometimes that helps in the early days. Over time, unprocessed grief tends to leak out in other ways.

 

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Therapy can help you gently turn toward what hurts, at a pace that feels manageable, so you can begin to:

• name what you’re carrying (and why it’s so heavy)

• process emotions that feel tangled or stuck

• work through guilt, anger, resentment, or unresolved questions

• understand triggers and waves of grief (including anniversaries)

• rebuild meaning, identity, and stability after loss

• learn coping skills that actually fit you

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“I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.”
C.S. Lewis

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