Beyond the Smile: Mental Health, Grief, and Healing

Written By: Marie Brandon, BSN, RN, Certified Grief Educator

Mental Health Awareness Month is a time to talk more openly about the struggles that often hide behind polite smiles and “I’m fine” responses. Grief is one of those struggles; common, deeply painful, and yet too often overlooked in mental health conversations.

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Myth: grief is just sadness.

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No, it’s a fog that settles over everything, disrupting your sleep, appetite, focus. It can make the simplest tasks feel impossible and the world around you feel unrecognizable. Yet society often treats grief like something we should just “get over” instead of the mental health issue it is. This month, I want to speak against the stigma of grief and mental health.

Grief Is a Mental Health Experience

We need to recognize grief as part of the mental health conversation. It’s not just emotional; it’s psychological, physical, spiritual, and relational. Understanding how grief shows up is the first step toward supporting ourselves and each other.

Types of Grief

Grief is not one-size-fits-all. Some of the most common types include:

• Anticipatory: Begins before a loss, such as terminal illness
• Collective: Shared grief, such as natural disasters or loss of a public figure
• Complicated: Impairs daily functioning, inability to accept the loss
• Cumulative: Multiple or unacknowledged losses
• Delayed: Grief not felt or acknowledged in the moment
• Disenfranchised: Socially minimized or judged grief (pet loss, miscarriage)
• Secondary: Subsequent losses following the initial loss (identity, friends, stability)
• Traumatic: Follows sudden or violent loss, possibly with PTSD symptoms.

Phases of Grief:

• Acute grief: Occurs immediately after the death or loss
• Early grief: Typically within the first two years
• Mature grief:  The lifelong process that follows

These are phases of grief, not milestones to overcome. How grief is processed and how healing occurs during these periods is as individualized as the person experiencing it.

How Grief Affects Us

Grief and mental health are deeply intertwined and impacts more than emotions. It can mimic or intensify mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Common symptoms include:

• Sleep disturbances
• “Grief brain” or trouble focusing
• Isolation or social withdrawal
• Mood swings or emotional numbness
• Physical symptoms (headaches, exhaustion, chest tightness)

Unacknowledged grief, especially in cases of disenfranchised loss, can lead to shame, loneliness, and worsening mental health.

Mental Health Support

I’ve learned more about grief than I ever intended to in this lifetime. You can’t ignore it, outthink it, rush or shame yourself through it. Grief demands to be acknowledged, felt, and processed.

During my acute stage of loss, I couldn’t focus, I didn’t feel like myself. Later in my early stage of grief, while the world moved on, I was still sitting in a space that felt heavy, confusing, and painfully quiet. For a long time, I tried to handle my grief quietly. I scheduled time to cry alone at the gravesite, I stayed busy. I believed if I could just push through the year of “firsts”, I’d reach a valley on the other side of the grief mountain.  

But there wasn’t one. I was still struggling to sleep. Still overwhelmed by daily tasks. I still couldn’t focus. Still feeling like a shell of my former self.

Two significant things changed the trajectory of my mental health healing: therapy and community.

Therapy

Talking with a grief therapist gave me a safe space to say things out loud that I didn’t even consciously know I was carrying. It helped me understand what I was feeling and how to process the “what ifs”, the “whys”, and the “what now”. 

Community

Finding a grief-informed community like Gloves for Grief, not only gave me a physical outlet for my anger but also a place to feel seen and supported. As I enter my third year of grieving, my grief is maturing, and my life is evolving around it. Grief still hits me out of nowhere like a tsunami, but now I have the tools and support to keep me from drowning.  

What You Can Do

If you’re grieving, you don’t have to carry it alone.

Grief and mental health support looks different for everyone. For some, it’s therapy. For others, it’s a support group, a faith leader, a trusted friend, or a journal. What matters is finding what helps you move forward with your grief. If you’re supporting someone who is grieving, one of the most meaningful things you can do is remind them that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a brave step toward healing.

Here are five meaningful actions you can take:

1. Acknowledge Your Own Grief
   Let yourself feel. There’s no timeline or “right” way. Consider journaling or taking a self-care day.
2. Reach Out for Support
   Therapy, support groups, or online communities can be lifelines. Find more resources at SAMHSA
3. Support Someone Who’s Grieving
   Be present. Listen without fixing. Sit in the silence.
4. Share Resources & Reduce Stigma
   Talk openly about grief and mental health. Your story might help someone else.
5. Advocate for Grief-Informed Mental Health
   Support organizations like  NAMI  (National Alliance on Mental Illness) that expand access to mental health care.

Mental Health Awareness Month invites us to name grief, support those who are hurting, and care for our mental well-being, especially after loss. It reminds us that grief is a valid, common mental health experience. Let’s keep the conversation going, because healing starts with community.

My Challenge to You

This month, take an intentional step towards healing:
📅 Book a therapy appointment
💬 Join a support group  G4G Virtual Support Group 4-week Session
✉️ Reach out to someone grieving
📢 Share this blog
🥊 Attend our Box & Breathe Wellness Event – June 7, 2025 Register Here

   
If you’re grieving, I see you.

You’re not broken; you’re navigating something incredibly difficult.

You aren’t the only one, and you don’t have to navigate it alone.

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“Grief deserves space. Mental health deserves care. And you deserve support.”

– xo, Marie