This paper is an essay on bereavement, which discusses that death is usually tougher on the living than on the dead.
This paper discusses that while psychologists can differentiate between “healthy” and “pathological” responses to death, grief is a highly individual experience for which responses to death are modified by cultures. The paper concludes that there is no panacea for grief; true mourning is the only medicine available for dealing with death, loss and pain.
“Avoidance of mourning can manifest as a superficial covering of meaningless activity, work or addictions. Such behaviors serve to still the painful mental chatter that besets the bereaved and illustrates the difficulty of feeling pain. Self-pity is also a natural response to death, but one that can become pathological in its extreme. Clinging to the past and berating the self for lost words or lost time only serve to deepen the pain of loss.”