Coping with the pandemic’s epidemic of grief and loss with the pandemic’s epidemic of grief and loss

Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

Most of us are on a low ebb a year after Coronavirus first hit our shores. The prolonged lockdown and its forced social isolation coupled with financial worries from losing a job and the extra stresses of homeschooling have left many totally exhausted.

The death of loved ones either due to Covid-19 or other reasons under lockdown has prevented us from grieving in the normal way.

also widespread prolonged grief for the collective loss of an entire way of life. One survey found that four out of 10 people revealed the pandemic has negatively impacted their mental health.

Athenry grief and trauma coach Sharon Ledwith is all too familiar with the toll that loss leaves. She was 21 when she lost her brother to suicide and was plunged into a crisis that took many years to overcome. She tried to take her life twice before ditching alcohol and turning her life around, retraining in meditation, reiki and qualifying as a personal development coach.

“Grief is our emotional response to losing someone or something. But its impact goes beyond how we feel to have physical, cognitive, behavioural, cultural and even spiritual consequences,” she reflects.

“It’s not just the one in nine people predicted to directly lose a loved one through this pandemic who are set to grieve. Each of us in a variety of — sometimes surprising — ways have been left confronting collective and personal loss.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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