When my brother died in 2016, I did not feel connected to anyone else who had been through that with a sibling.

It's easy for me to feel quickly alienated from my family or excluded.

If other people don’t acknowledge your loss or if they minimize it in some way, you may feel that no one understands, relates, or wants to even hear about your thoughts or feelings. You may start to doubt yourself and wonder if you “deserve” to grieve. This can leave you feeling alone, resentful, angry, frustrated, or even desperate. You may hide your grief from others. This makes what is already so hard even harder.

Identifying your unrecognized grief and understanding how it may affect you is the beginning of coping with it. This chapter includes some first steps toward building coping strategies and also encourages you to make a self-care plan.