Why We Need Support Following Bereavement

When we experience loss we immediately turn to our friends and family, expecting them to be able to help us. All too often, we are left disappointed. Friends don’t know what to say and can find it difficult to be around us. They sometimes have no understanding of what we are going through. With family support, all too often there are other pre-existing issues underlying our relationships that can make it difficult to get the support we need.

Yet we are social beings. We need other people to survive, especially more so when we are trying to navigate our way through a difficult loss. Community offers an alternative option to family and friends. When I refer to community I don’t necessarily mean the immediate community that we live in, although for some people, this can be beneficial depending on the situation.

I’m referring to community as a group of people who have come together because of a common goal, who wish to share experiences and draw support from each other. With an experience of loss, finding others who are in a similar situation can make the difference between suffering alone or drawing strength from our experiences and developing connections with others.

We can recover from loss without support. Yet why would we want to? Suffering in silence, not knowing if what we feel or think is right, tormenting ourselves with thoughts that if shared could lighten our burden and help us move on.

With the advent of the internet, it is now even easier to find a community that can help support us from the comfort of our own homes. A selection of online community groups can be found at the end of this article. By starting with internet communities we can then be led to finding a real life community that can only enhance our state of well-being.

Not only do we get the chance to share our experiences and find that we are not alone we get a chance to help others whilst helping ourselves. We can reach out and make a difference to our lives and the lives of others. We may have information that we’ve found that is useful to others and vice versa.

We can develop new skills and maybe find that silver lining to our experience that will not only let us move on but transform our lives creating something new and wonderful. We can make new friends and set our lives on a new path that is ultimately richer than before.