Dealing with the Trauma of Losing a Loved One

Having a loved one die or has something bad happened to them is very hard to go through my personally just had my grandpa die about this Christmas Eve and it’s seriously has been super hard for me and my grandma but what she has been doing is she has been spending a lot of time with her family and trying to just maybe branch out from things in slowly develop new connections with new people

I dealt a lot with "I'm not allowed to have ptsd, I wasn't at war" and was told its really common train of thought for ppl with trauma, but don't worry it's valid, you lost someone

There is something called secondary trauma that is caused when someone hears about something traumatic but was not there. Even therapists are told to be cautious about this because they can get secondary trauma from listening to other's trauma. Even if it was a few years ago and you weren't there there is also something called traumatic or complicated grief that comes from an unexpected death. Maybe looking into getting a therapist to talk about this kind of stuff, but it is definitely a thing if that helps at all!

Loss can be traumatizing, especially if it's sudden or unexpected like losing someone due to an accident. Grief can also be very difficult to navigate, I would suggest looking into the diagnostic criteria if you genuinely feel you might have some trauma related condition, and regardless seeking counseling or another form of mental health support for grief. I hope you can find some help and comfort.