Ways to Move Through Grief:

Although there is nothing quite like the healing power of a puppy's tongue or a kitten's purring or the nearness of any beloved animal, there are other ways to move through grief. They are:

Self-help. Sometimes it is true that time is the best healer. The first course of action is to maintain good health habits, eating and sleeping well, and not giving up your exercise even though your pet is no longer with you. Talking with friends and family helps. And it also helps to allow for tears and sadness and various rituals of grief.

Group Therapy. In a supportive environment, group therapy can aid and enhance the process. It helps to know that you are not alone, and being part of a group gives you the opportunity to learn how to cope and to develop general life skills. It tends to increase self-esteem and is especially effective in reducing painful, excessive guilt and shame, which some people feel after the loss of a pet.

Individual treatment. There are times when grief turns into something more serious. The following is a list of symptoms. If you have been experiencing several of these for a while, you may have lapsed into what is called clinical depression and could be best helped with individual, professional treatment.

• Depressed mood with tearfulness and / or irritability.

• Loss of interest in normally pleasurable activities.
• Unusual weight gain or loss or appetite change.
• Problems sleeping.
• Restlessness or agitation.
• Fatigue or loss of energy.
• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt.
• Decreased concentration and /or poor memory.
• Recurrent thoughts of death or recurrent suicidal thoughts without a plan or intent. (If you feel you have a specific plan or intent, you should immediately call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.)

Individual Psychotherapy not only helps decrease painful symptoms, it is also a way to gain insight into how this particular grief is connected to other, unresolved losses in life. It helps clear away old, ineffective patterns of behavior and fine-tune life skills so that people feel more comfortable with themselves and others. The ultimate aim is to be freer to pursue life as fully and effectively as possible.