How Grief Affects the Brain and how Hypnotherapy can help
When we think about brain trauma, we usually think about physical injury, but we now understand that the emotional trauma of grief has a profound effect on the mind.
When we grieve neurological changes happen in several regions of the brain. The limbic system and the pre-frontal cortex part of the brain is involved with:
• emotional regulation
• memory
• multitasking
• organisation
• learning.
When you are grieving a flood of chemicals and hormones dance around in your head and body which can cause your immune system to falter making you feel really run down, anxious and or depressed.
Even if the death of your loved one was expected the actual event can still feel like a shock to the system.
The primitive areas in your brain including the fear centre are overactive adding to feelings of stress and despair.
Depression can cause widespread changes across several parts of the brain including the amygdala which regulates sleep and the hippocampus which processes memory and regulates stress hormones. These changes can disrupt core functions of our bodies and minds.
As you grieve you may find yourself:
• Sleeping too little or too much
• Forgetting things or feeling trapped in brain fog
• Angry
• Anxious
• Exhausted
• Over or under eating
These feelings are difficult and the acute pain can feel like it will last forever.
While grief is a universal response to loss how we experience the symptoms of grief is variable and this will be unique to you.
Try not to compare your grief to someone else’s grief especially if you think or feel they are coping with it better than you. There is not a right or wrong way to grieve!
Self-Care and gentle exercise such as a walk can improve mood memory and thought processing.
Talking with friends about the person you lost can be a great comfort and it activates neurons in the reward centres of the brain as you recall that happy memory or the time shared with your loved one.
As you go through the grieving process, solution-focused talking and or clinical hypnotherapy can help you process your anxious thoughts and feelings.
As your experience is unique to you, I tailor your sessions to your individual requirements.
