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Significant life changes can also cause people to experience grief. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, people lost their jobs, experienced illness, and feared for their well-being. This event led to widespread grief and depression. Of course, many people died from COVID, but other families are impacted by ongoing health issues due to COVID, like long-term breathing problems, difficulty with thinking and concentrating, chronic fatigue, headaches, sleep problems, and widespread pain. 5 Losing a previous physical ability or way of life can lead to grief and depression. When a person or a family member discovers they have a life-changing illness, the emotional challenges that accompany the diagnosis may include grief. These illnesses are not necessarily fatal. For example, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes will lead to significant lifestyle changes and may cause the individual and their family to grieve the life they had or hoped to have. Other illnesses or accidents may result in disability. These losses may stand on their own, or they may accompany the death of a loved one. When someone experiences multiple losses in a short time, it “can complicate or prolong grief Everyone will experience grief at some point in their lives. There are as many ways to grieve as there are people; “there is no right way to grieve.” 2 Each person’s mourning process will vary due to their cultural traditions, religious upbringing, personal experiences, and support network. For adolescents and young adults, the “pace of brain growth and . . . developing skills [like] self-regulation, identity formation, and coping capacity have an impact on the grief experience.” 4 The process of grieving is also not a steady course of slowly getting better each day. Some days you might cry all day, and other days you may express a range of emotions from sadness and delay [their] ability to adapt, heal, and recover.” 1 Navigating the Grieving Process

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Chapter 1: What is Grief?