Friends and Grief

Friendships can be both incredibly helpful and difficult during a period of grief. I struggled to actually spend time with my friends because I became much more introverted. I had to push myself to be social and being social also felt increasingly harder as I felt I was growing apart from my friends. In a grief session that my mom asked me to attend, the leader talked about how friendships can be difficult for teens and children alike during a period of grief as he/she may become frustrated when their friends complain about family or other challenges even because he/she feels her/his situation is much more difficult. Although I knew that my friends wanted to be there for me, I couldn’t let myself open up to them. Instead, I always told them I was doing great. One of my friends even told another friend that I hadn’t given her the chance to be there for me which in certain was is true. It takes a long time to be able to build trust and then share something with even your closest friends.