What are some types of grief that are often neglected?

@Hope

Aw yes, so important to acknowledge all kinds of grief and *validate* your grieving for you, encouraging ourselves to heal, at our pace!

I'm thinking of so many kinds of grief here! Will touch base on two for the time, The Anticipatory grief, and the Secondary grief.

Either of these might not have an immediate/ direct encounter/ relation with some kind of "loss" but it's there and completely valid too.

As for "causes" or types of losses that might not get enough attention, personally, I feel the grief of lost/ missed opportunities and loss of a comfort zone AND familiarity with something, especially when there's some change (even positive)~ I think it's even more overlooked when there's some sort of positive change involved because "hey things are so much better for you now, why miss the sad old times???".

Something again not talked about enough, when it comes to even losing a love one-Grief, I feel, is loss of the part of us that doesn't make sense anymore after losing our love one~ that part of us, that feels like it doesn't "belong" anywhere anymore, when its core existence, the basis of its being and identity is affected and greatly!

Sending love to everyone coming across!💛

One type of grief that I don't see addressed pretty much at all is loss of self identity when you become disabled. I'm 57, and my entire life has been predicated upon the fact that I was "smart." I did well in school I have a bachelor's, I have a masters. I was actually starting a doctorate when things kind of came to a head.

I've had continual body aches for years and had also fractured my back working as a nurse. During the assessment of my back I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia, an invisible illness as is my chronic pain in my back. I've also lost a lot of memory and especially short-term memory.

I've lost the ability to think straight, literally. I have something called IHI, which is a sleep disorder in which I don't get more than 10% of my sleep cycle in REM, so memories don't form Etc.

It also messes with my speech--- I used to be eloquent. Now I say a lot of things like things, stuff, you know that thing over there. Because I can't remember or I can't get out that that is a cat, or sometimes I know it's a cat, I want to say the word cat, but what comes out is doorway or some other such nonsense.

I also have lost the ability to sit for any length of time. The softer the area the longer I can sit, but even so, half an hour is pretty much my max and then I have to be up and walking around which kind of sucks if it's a bad fibro flare day.

Those are days I just take my meds and go to sleep and pray that I wake up feeling better.

So grief for loss of body autonomy, grief for loss of my mind and it's capabilities, grief for loss of my career trajectory and even grief for my lifestyle. I went from making over six figures to Social Security disability which isn't much. Grief that I can't help my kids in a way that I used to be able to.

I know it sounds whiny but these are things I miss. I miss being able to support myself. I miss having my mind and I miss being able to just go and do things and not have to contemplate okay how is this going to affect my body not only today but tomorrow and maybe the rest of the week depending on what's happening.