b'MS Focus ActivitiesGGrriieeff,,LLoossss,,aannddMMSSBy Marcia HarrisGrief is both the emotion and the experience Anger: You may be angry at yourself, at others, of coping with loss. Usually, this loss is of aor at your system of belief for this event. You loved one. But what I have discovered aftermay even associate with feelings of guilt researching for this article is that it may beduring this stage. mixed with feelings of guilt and confusion, Bargaining: You imagine making a deal such especially if the relationship was an unusualas youll do a certain thing or give up a certain one.thing so you may be rid of this disease. In my case, someone with whom I had a Depression: You are becoming aware of your 10-year on-again-off-again relationship lostreality and fully realizing the loss of what his battle with pancreatic cancer in May. Whileonce was. our relationship had ended years before, he Acceptance:Finally, you learn to accept that still visited occasionally. But when he was di- your preferred reality and actual reality are agnosed, he seemed to want to get togetherdifferent. This does not mean you may be more frequently. I knew this was not a goodhappy with your new reality, but you have idea as I did not want to get more involvedacknowledged it.with someone I would lose. My therapist saidAccording to the Cleveland Clinic, there this often happened when people knew theare many symptoms of grief. While many are end is near. Since May, my grieving has comeemotional, grief can also overwork your nervous in waves, and each waves intensity varies bysystem causing a weakened immune system. a picture I may stumble upon, a song, a meal,It can also make it difficult to concentrate on or the mention of a place we once traveled to. daily tasks. Symptoms of grief include: However, not all grief is because of the loss Fatigue of an individual. You may also grieve the loss Headaches of things such as a relationship, whether it was a romantic one like a marriage or a friendship, Nausea your home or neighborhood, a job or a career Tightness in chest or throat goal, your youth, and even your good health.Heart palpitations When people are diagnosed with a disease Insomnia or sleeping too much such as multiple sclerosis, they may start the Confusion or trouble thinking or making five stages of grief as outlined in Elizabethdecisions. Kubler-Rosss book, On Death and Dying. These ve stages are: Difficulty rememberingDenial: You cannot believe this is happening Feeling like you have lost your sense and are in shock or disbelief.of direction. msfocusmagazine.org 30'