COVID-19: covid 19 episode 6 grief in the time of corona

[mdlbear]

Last Wednesday, Pocket, which populates Firefox's new tab, pointed me at an article in Harvard Business Review titled That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief. It goes into some more detail about what grief is and some of the things you can do about it. ("Just get over it" is not one of those things.)

You don't get to my age without having done a fair amount of grieving, and any discussion of it is likely to attract my attention for some reason. Probably Dunning–Kruger effect if truth be told -- simply having done something a few times doesn't make one an expert. Nevertheless, I'm available for hugs if needed, and advice of dubious quality if wanted.

I was going to say something else here, but it seems to have fizzled and I want to get this out there so that it doesn't sit in my drafts folder and get moldy.

Notes & links:

  @ That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief - HBR
  @ Kübler-Ross model - Wikipedia
    Grief.com

Comments

[madfilkentist]

I get the feeling the article is applying the term grief too broadly. Anticipatory grief isn't at all the same as anxiety. I sometimes feel anticipatory grief knowing my cats are old and I'll lose both of them in a few years. There I'm thinking of the time when they won't be with me. That's different from feeling anxiety that something will happen to them. That's thinking of what will take them from me. The cause is similar, but the experience isn't.

[mdlbear]

That's a good way to distinguish them, and you're right -- they're very distinct. Anxiety is how you feel now about what you're afraid will happen, anticipatory grief is about how you expect to feel after it does, and having that leak back into the present.