The Grieving Body
How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing
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The follow-up to celebrated grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor’s The Grieving Brain focuses on the impact of grief—and life’s other major stressors—on the human body.
Coping with death and grief is one of the most painful human experiences. While we can speak to the psychological and emotional ramifications of loss and sorrow, we often overlook its impact on our physical bodies. Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor specializes in the study of grief, and in The Grieving Body she shares vital scientific research, revealing imperative new insights on its profound physiological impact. As she did in The Grieving Brain, O’Connor combines illuminating studies and personal stories to explore the toll loss takes on our cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems and the larger implications for our long-term well-being.
The Grieving Body addresses questions about how bereavement affects us, such as:
Can we die of a broken heart?What happens in our bodies when we’re grieving?How do our coping behaviors affect our physical health?What is the cognitive impact of grief?Why are we more prone to illness during times of enormous stress?and more
Research-backed, warm, and empathetic, The Grieving Body is an essential, hopeful read for those experiencing loss as well as their supportive friends and family.
The Grieving Body is illustrated with black-and-white charts and graphs.
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In this wise and lucid guide, O'Connor (The Grieving Brain), a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, examines the ways grief wreaks havoc on the brain and body and how those effects can be mitigated. Drawing from scientific research and personal experience—including her mother's early death from cancer and her own multiple sclerosis diagnosis—O'Connor catalogues the physiological changes that can result from loss, as blood pressure and cortisol levels spike and a weakened immune system makes the body more susceptible to infection. As she explains, those effects are partly because close relationships "regulate our physiology," stimulating the production of such feel-good chemicals as oxytocin; their sudden withdrawal is akin to a piece of one's own body being "cut away." But by noticing signs of stress, readers can use the grieving process to heal both physically and emotionally—for example, by viewing reduced energy levels as motivation to prioritize what's important. Throughout, O'Connor balances sharp scientific insights with elegant observations about the nature of loss. The result is sure to be a balm for mourners.
