Your brain is grieving too.
Grief doesn’t only hurt emotionally. It can temporarily change the way your brain processes information, stores memories, makes decisions and pays attention.
You might forget why you walked into a room. Read the same paragraph five times. Lose words halfway through a sentence. Miss appointments you would normally remember, struggle to make simple decisions, or feel as though your thoughts are moving through fog.
It can be frightening, particularly if you are usually capable, organised or quick-thinking.
This section is here to help you understand what grief can do to attention, memory, thinking and perception, and why.
Not because you need to think your way out of grief.
But because sometimes knowing “my brain is responding to loss” is less frightening than wondering “what is wrong with me?”
Your brain is grieving too.
Grief can make a familiar mind feel unfamiliar.
You might forget what you were saying halfway through a sentence.
Read the same paragraph three times.
Lose words you know you know.
Walk into a room and have absolutely no idea why you are there.
You may struggle to make decisions, follow conversations or hold onto information that once felt effortless.
That can be frightening.
Especially when part of you is wondering,
What is wrong with me?
Nothing about this means you are failing at grief.
Your brain is trying to process something enormous while also helping you survive ordinary life.
You don’t need to force it back to how it used to work.
Sometimes understanding why your mind feels different is enough to stop being quite so afraid of it.
