Facing mental health issues

Traumatic loss – of a loved one, or of your own familiar life through illness, disability, relationship break-up (often accompanied by the loss of the home) or even imprisonment – can affect mental health in the long term. The sort of depression you might feel caused by, say, unhappiness in your job or where you have to live is easy to recognise as such. Severe grief, however, can produce frightening symptoms and make you question your mental health.

Depression, fear and anxiety

Grief and traumatic loss combined are more difficult to come through than either the grief or trauma alone. In the circumstances of a traumatic death such as suicide, you may fantasise that your loved one suffered for a long time before dying, or that a simple action on your part might have prevented the event entirely. You may have vivid, upsetting dreams, become forgetful and accident-prone, and feel isolated from your friends because you think they will not understand the traumatic experience you are going through. You may also fear your own death, since the loss of someone important in your life makes your own life seem vulnerable.

When you are feeling depressed, fearful and anxious at the same time, you can also feel that you are losing your sanity.

Professional assistance

No matter how frightened and lacking in hope you may be, talking about your difficulties will help. A visit to your GP is important so that you realise that professional assistance is available to you.

You may be anxious that your mental state will lead on to a diagnosis of a psychiatric problem that could alter your whole life. However, you are far from alone: at any one time, 5-10% of the British population suffers from clinical depression, and most are treated by their GPs without referral to a psychiatrist.

You can expect to receive the help and support you need. And, particularly if your distress has been triggered by traumatic bereavement, you may benefit from a specialist talking therapy.