Mental Health Awareness Week – Dealing with a bereavement
Inheritance disputes can naturally follow from a family member’s or loved one’s passing. Most people in these difficult situations are often dealing with the symptoms of grief and loss, as well as navigating family disputes and legal proceedings.
For this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, it was crucial to highlight the importance of looking after your mental well-being during grief. Going through a bereavement is already an extremely difficult, upsetting and stressful time, so adding a dispute on top can make things extremely overwhelming. In this blog, we will discuss grief and the steps you can take to make things a little easier for you.
Grief and Loss
Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. Often, the pain of loss can feel overwhelming. You may experience difficult and unexpected emotions, from shock or anger to disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness. The pain of grief can also disrupt your physical health, making it difficult to sleep, eat, or even think straight.
These are normal reactions to loss — and the more significant the loss, the more intense your grief will be.
When combined with a family dispute around inheritance, where perhaps you are unhappy with the execution of a will or angry with other parties, it can make an already tricky emotional situation even more challenging.
How do we cope with the grief that loss brings?
While grieving a loss is an inevitable part of life, there are ways to help cope with the pain, come to terms with your grief, and eventually find a way to pick up the pieces and move on with your life.
- Acknowledge your pain
- Accept that grief can trigger many different & unexpected emotions
- Understand that your grieving process will be unique to you
- Seek out face-to-face support from people who care about you
- Support yourself emotionally by taking care of yourself physically
- Recognize the difference between grief and depression
Family disputes and grieving
Considering the effects of grief and loss, we at IDR Law endeavour to take the stress out of any legal proceedings and, where possible, resolve disputes through careful communication and mediation.
Where can I find bereavement support?
Grief Chat
Most people expect to be very upset or distressed when someone close to them has died. What surprises many people is how strong the emotions can be, how they can change very quickly, and how long they last. People around you may think you should be ‘back to normal’ after a few weeks or months. You might appear to be your usual self to other people, but you know that on the inside, you’re not even sure what normal is any more.
Everyone grieves in a way that is unique to them and their relationship with the person who has died. Well-intentioned people may say to you, ‘Time is a great healer.’ Sometimes, however, it can seem that life is more difficult as the weeks and months go by.
We know that no one can understand exactly what your loss feels like to you. But we do know that it’s sometimes easier to talk to someone outside of your friends and family about grief and the impact of bereavement on your life, and this is why we recommend the GriefChat service.
GriefChat was created by bereavement experts. By clicking on the GriefChat box below, you can chat directly with a specially trained bereavement counsellor. GriefChat counsellors are experienced in supporting bereaved people. They will listen to your story, explore how your grief affects you and help you find any additional support you might need. GriefChat is a free service available Monday- Friday, 9 am-9 pm (except Bank Holidays).
GriefChat provides:
- Emotional support for bereaved people.
- Access to trained bereavement counsellors.
- Referrals to other specialist bereavement services.