Welcome
Welcome to the Rockingham/Essex County Chapter for the Bereaved Parents of the USA
*Offering Support, Care and Compassion for Bereaved Parents, Siblings, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Grieving the Death of a Child
For the Newly Bereaved
It has been said that the bereaved underestimate their ability to survive. However the many surviving, functioning, bereaved parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles are proof that the self-help process in a group such as BP/USA can help and does work.
- Feel physically exhausted, have difficulty sleeping-can’t sleep or can’t stop sleeping and don’t want to get up.
- Feel a tightness in the throat, heaviness in the chest, or a lump in the stomach like a rock.
- Have an empty feeling with appetite loss-or eat too much.
- Wander aimlessly, forget a thought in the middle of a sentence, neglect to finish tasks, feel restless, look for activity, but can’t concentrate.
- Have respiratory reactions- excessive yawning, gasping, hyperventilating.
- Experience feelings of anxiety.
- Think they are going crazy or losing their mind-feel depressed, really sad.
- Say to oneself, “If only I had..”
- Keep asking, “Why?”
- Feel they don’t want to go on-“What’s the point?”
- Feel the loss isn’t real, that the child will return.
- Look for the child in a crowd or see reminders unexpectedly
- Need to tell and retell and remember things about the child and the experience of death
- Can’t stop crying or can’t cry-cry at unexpected times.
All of these reactions are natural and normal.
It is important not to deny one’s feelings, but to learn to express them. Realizing that you are not alone in having these reactions is helpful. One’s balance is regained slowly through understanding and working through the grief process.