Understanding Your Grief After A Drug Overdose Death

Loss is always hard, but when someone you love dies of an accidental drug overdose, the grief that follows can be especially painful and challenging. In this compassionate guide, Dr. Alan Wolfelt, one of the world's most respected and beloved grief counselors and educators, shares the most important lessons he has learned from loved ones who've picked up the pieces in the aftermath of a drug overdose. Readers will learn ideas for coping in the early days after the tragic death, as well as ways to transcend the stigma associated with overdose deaths. The book also explores common thoughts and feelings, the six needs of mourning, self-care essentials, finding hope, and more. Yes, the road you are now walking is a heartbreaking one, but the principles in this guide will help you step through the darkness and back into the light. Understanding Your Grief After A Drug-Overdose Death is part of Companion Press's Words of Hope and Healing series—empathetic books on grief and other loss-related topics, with just the right amount of education and support.

Explaining the important difference between grief and mourning, this book explores every mourner's need to acknowledge death and embrace the pain of loss. Also explored are the many factors that make each person's grief unique and the many normal thoughts and feelings mourners might have. Questions of spirituality and religion are addressed as well. The rights of mourners to be compassionate with themselves, to lean on others for help, and to trust in their ability to heal are upheld. Journaling sections encourage mourners to articulate their unique thoughts and feelings.

“When a Child Dies From Drugs” is written by parents to help other parents who are experiencing the ultimate tragedy of their child’s death from drugs or alcohol - parents who find themselves isolated in a fathomless dark void wondering whether they will ever resurface into the real world again. This book offers strength, practical advice and an aid in grief recovery for parents and families, gleaned not only from personal experiences but also from meeting with many parents through their out-reach program,"G.R.A.S.P."(Grief Recovery After Substance Passing) Subjects covered range from the emotional trauma of learning of the child’s demise and on through the guilt, denial, anger, “what-if’s” and, finally, acceptance and to suggestions of how to cope daily and into a future which will never be the same. It is also illuminating to all those who know someone who has lost a loved one through drugs -What to say and do? What NOT to say and do? There is advice here for those who want to support families in grief. With personal insights this book is very much like friends reaching out to friends in compassion and kindness - friends who understand because, quite simply, the writers continue to be on the same journey as those they will comfort.

True stories about surviving loss of a loved one from an overdose

Grief overload is what you feel when you experience too many significant losses all at once, in a relatively short period of time, or cumulatively. In addition to the deaths of loved ones, such losses can also include divorce, estrangement, illness, relocation, job changes, and more. Our minds and hearts have enough trouble coping with a single loss, so when the losses pile up, the grief often seems especially chaotic and defeating. The good news is that through intentional, active mourning, you can and will find your way back to hope and healing. This compassionate guide will show you how.

We don't only experience grief after a loss—we often experience it before. If someone we love is seriously ill, or if we're concerned about upcoming hardships of any kind, we naturally begin to grieve right now. This process of anticipatory grief is normal, but it can also be confusing and painful. Life is change, and change is hard. This book will help see you through.

This companion workbook to the second edition of Dr. Wolfelt's bestseller Understanding Your Grief helps you explore the many facets of your grief through guided journaling. After you read a section in Understanding Your Grief, the journal asks you questions about what you've just read. It invites you to consider, clarify, and jot down your thoughts and feelings.A good grief journal is a safe place of solace—somewhere you can express yourself no matter what you are experiencing. If you're grieving a death or a significant loss of any kind, this journal and its companion text will help you understand and embrace your grief, actively mourn, and move toward healing. You'll find that the journal can also be used to help honor the person who died and/or work through any lingering relationship issues. As you express your emotions in this journal, you will feel them beginning to soften as well as become more integrated into your ongoing life. Write as much as or as little as you'd like. Even just a little engagement with this journal will help you befriend your grief and give you healing momentum.

After a loved one dies, each day can be a struggle. But each day, you can also find comfort and understanding in this daily companion. With one brief entry for every day of the calendar year, this little book by beloved grief counselor Dr. Alan Wolfelt offers small, one-day-at-a-time doses of guidance and healing. Each entry includes an inspiring or soothing quote followed by a short discussion of the day's theme. This compassionate gem of a book will accompany you.