Title: From Loss to Love | Psychology Today
Headings: From Loss to Love
From Loss to Love
The pain of loss is unavoidable, yet millions harm themselves trying to escape it. But loss has a sweet side, and when you open yourself to the pain, you open yourself to joy.
The Ubiquity of Loss
Pain Mishandled: The Feedback Loop from Hell
Mental Flexibility: The Path to Healing
Handling a Death vs Honoring a Life
How to Deal With the Pain of Loss
1: Acknowledge loss.
2: Embrace feelings of loss.
3: Expand your scope of vision.
4: Prepare to be overwhelmed.
5: Watch out for unhelpful thoughts.
6: Connect with what matters.
7: Take committed action.

Content: The Feedback Loop from Hell
The modern world is now so rigidly committed to avoidance that it has not made room for what we all know deep down: Love and loss come as a single package. Psychological vitality and openness to hurt are two sides of the same coin. If you are unable to risk loss, you are unable to live a vital life. It you are unwilling to be hurt, you are unable to love. Contemporary culture leaves little or no room for recognizing and caring for an experience of loss—or virtually any other experience of difficulty. Take, for example, the newest version of the psychiatric bible, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual , or DSM-5 . It allows for two weeks of bereavement —anything longer is grounds for diagnosis and, likely, medication. Two weeks! You may have been married for 40 years, but 14 days of grieving for a deceased spouse and time's up!