Really Strange How I Feel....

[phoenixtag]

At first it was upset stomach, then insomnia, then back to stomach, and now no insomnia or stomach, but I can't concentrate or feel right.... each day is different. What's happening.....ugh.

I've had anxiety issues in the past. Kind of feels the same. Never really had a panic attack before.

Going to see counselor today.

It's like a cork on something that's going to blow.

Terry

[kayc]

Hmmm...it sounds like grief. It does affect focus, it affects our eating, it can bring on anxiety.

Please let me know how it goes with the counselor today. I hope you start feeling better soon...none of us want to see a cork blow!...although we'd understand.

[phoenixtag]

The meeting with the therapist went well. She's helped me before on other issues. Today was mostly going over all that happened in the last three months.

I don't feel cured, but we meet again tomorrow to go over ways to address the stages of grief. I know you can bounce around them, but she thinks I'm in sadness/depression stage.

She agrees that it is of course grief, but thinks that there's some trauma in there too with the complications that my dad had for his hip surgeries. He got good news today in the C. diff is gone. So that's great news. Now it's just trying to get back some of his strength to prepare for the other hip.

So then why do I still feel as if the anxiety is sitting there in my chest.....and my intestines are still jumbling around.

Terry

[kayc]

Grief isn't something that is ever "cured" but rather it evolves, it does take time and effort to work through it. Your anxiety may lessen as you continue through this, but you may want to consider seeing a doctor for it in the meantime. I have never regretted getting help for my anxiety, but mine isn't due to grief, but rather GAD...grief can be a trigger though that sets it ablaze.

I'm glad your therapist was of help and I hope you are able to continue seeing her.

[MartyT]

You may find something useful in this article, Terry: Anxiety Attacks in Grief: Tips for Coping.

Also, I hope your counselor doesn't put too much stock in the notion of "stages of grief," since that theory (first articulated by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross nearly a half-century ago!) has been challenged repeatedly by researchers and experts in the field of grief, loss and bereavement. Grief is far too complex an experience to be reduced to predictable, easily described "stages." See, for example, The New Stages of Grief: 5 Tasks, No Timeline

[phoenixtag]

Marty-

Pat at Hospice of the Valley, gave me your book to read. She's a very nice person.

Terry

[MartyT]

♥