Immediate effects of bereavement

Two symptoms are common immediately following a bereavement:

• numbness:
  • experienced immediately after the death of a close relative or friend, and before the onset of acute grief
  • intellectually, there is acceptance of what has happened, but there is no feeling, perhaps with awareness of the incongruity of the response
  • numbness lasts only hours or days, but it is not generally regarded as abnormal unless it persists beyond two weeks
  • during this period the person carries out the necessary practical tasks appropriately but feels cut off and unreal, as if everything is done in a dream
    
    
• disbelief:
  • is a common reaction in the first few hours or days, when the newly bereaved may say "I just can't believe it " and may recognise themselves that the truth has not yet 'sunk in'
  • it has a protective function, allowing the person to assimilate over a period of time the full implications of what has happened
  • it may take months to accept the finality of death
    
    

The process of grieving begins when the bereaved person begins to feel and know that the loss has occurred.