Dr Keith Manning - The Grief Doctor

Alcohol Addiction Treatment: Selecting An Alcohol Treatment Center

October 25, 2009 – 6:21 am

I have recently undergone some extensive training on alcohol and substance abuse treatment. I have had to counsel drunk drivers that have killed someone while intoxicated. I have also had to counsel families dealing with the loss of a loved one due to a drunk driving accident. The best way to seal with a drunk driving death is to prevent it.

It is preventable. But, it requires professional help.As a way to put all of this new training in perspective, I have created a Hub over at Hubpages.com Take a look at it by clicking the link below:

http://hubpages.com/hub/alcohol-treatment-center

Do Not Overlook These Symptoms of Anxiety

October 12, 2009 – 3:16 am

If you can identify stress early on, you can save yourself of pain and grief. Unchecked, stress can become a serious issue both mentally and physically. Stress can put undue strain on a person’s heart and can result in high blood pressure. And of course, if you do not deal with the symptoms of stress early on, you could develop an anxiety disorder, anxiety attacks, and even social anxiety or depression. These illnesses can negatively affect your school and work performance. The following are some basic tips for how to spot the symptoms of anxiety before they get out of hand. Read More »

By Keith Manning | Posted in Anxiety And Depression | Tagged anxiety attack, anxiety attacks, anxiety disorder, anxiety disorders, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, social anxiety disorder, symptoms of anxiety, symptoms of depression | Comments (1)

Wrongful Death Attorneys: Do You Need An Attorney?

August 23, 2009 – 8:16 pm

serious_auto_accident If you are grieving over the death of a loved one who has been killed in an accident, you might need to talk to a wrongful death attorney about filing a wrongful death claim. While you are busy burying your loved one, the persons responsible for his or her death are busy hiring attorneys, investigators, adjusters to minimize or avoid liability. As such, you need to hire a wrongful death professional of your own.

Litigating a wrongful death case requires specialized training and experience. As such, your wrongful death attorney needs to have specialized knowledge in this unique area of law.

Here are just a few of the factors that you need to discuss with your potential attorney to evaluate whether or not he or she has the experience and training to be trusted with this type of claim. Read More »

By Keith Manning | Posted in Wrongful Death Claims | Tagged accident attorney, adjuster, death attorney, defense attorney, insurance adjuster, insurance company, wrongful death attorney, wrongful death lawyer | Comments (0)

The Danger of Denial: How Avoiding Your Grief Can Impede Emotional Healing

July 22, 2009 – 5:23 am

In The Phantom of the Opera, Erik (the “phantom”) wears a mask to cover the scars that disfigure him- scars incurred by an accident that occurred in years past. Much like the Phantom, many people wear an emotional mask to cover the emotional scars of grief, in some cases, scars that lurk beneath the surface for years.

Within the five stages of grief, denial is a type of emotional mask, whereby a grieving person intentionally suppresses the pain that he or she is feeling, due to a loss.

Denial can be a conscious act of avoidance or it can be a subconscious response to facing the reality that the unthinkable has happened.

By Keith Manning | Posted in Coping With Grief, Denial, Stages Of Grief | Tagged alleviation, avoidance, deal with grief, dealing with grief, Denial, grief, loss, shock, Stages Of Grief, substance abuse, trauma | Comments (1)

Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Death: Techniques To Survive The Pain

July 19, 2009 – 7:51 pm

It does not matter whether or not your child is five weeks old or five years old. The loss of a child is one of the most heart wrenching ordeals anyone can experience. Losing a child is, in a sense, losing one’s self. Whether the parent is the mother or the father, the agony is real.

I vividly remember the agony I experienced during my wife’s miscarriage. I kept a strong stoic face, but inside I was in pieces. I know that she was in agony as well and remember the countless tears that we shed together for our unborn child.

It is very important that couples support each other in their suffering.

By Keith Manning | Posted in Coping With Grief, Miscarriage | Tagged death, five stages of grief, grief, grieving, miscarraige, palliatric care, Stages Of Grief, still birth, still born, support | Comments (0)

Dealing With Grief: Myths And Facts About Coping With Grief

July 15, 2009 – 7:00 am

grief After the loss of a loved ones, you will receive a lot of advice from well meaning friends and relatives about how you “should” cope with grief. I think that it is important to separate the myths from the realities when dealing with grief.

Think, for a moment, about your beliefs.

What are some of your beliefs with respect to dealing with grief?

What “shoulds” for handling anxiety, stress and depression were common as you grew up?

I would suggest that you take a moment to write them down.

If you know someone who has experienced loss, you might consider sharing your list with them. Discuss whether or not these beliefs are healthy (ie help you deal with grief) or destructive (disrupt the natural movement through the five stages of grief).

By Keith Manning | Posted in Coping With Grief, Grief And Depression, Stages Of Grief | Comments (0)

Dealing With Dying Children: Consider Pediatric Palliative Care

July 13, 2009 – 6:00 am

When a child is born with a congenital illness that does not have a cure, it is natural for the child’s parents to have great difficulty caring for their child in his or her final time on Earth. This is because it is natural for a child to accept the loss of a parent but it is not normal for the parent to witness his child’s death.

During this time of great stress and anxiety, parents need to recognize that they might not be the best persons to provide primary care to their dying child.

What It Pediatric Palliative Care?

Pediatric palliative care is a specialized type of hospice care that is designed to care for terminally ill children who are not expected to live long.

The main benefit of this type of specialized care is that it frees the parents from the worry of providing daily personal and medical care.

Instead, the parents are able to focus their time and energy on helping their child deal with dying.

Benefits Of Pediatric Palliative Care

Palliative care also provides a buffer between the dying child and the parents’ grief.

Where a parent is responsible for the day to day care of the terminally ill child, it is only natural for the parents’ grief to be made known to the child. This can lead to depression and feelings of guilt by the terminally ill child.

Quality palliative care provides a buffer from the parents’ emotions and, equally, allows the parent the space to express feelings of grief as they attempt to deal with dying themselves.

A quality palliative care provider can better assist the child with pain, vomiting, shortness of breath and secondary ailments associated with the terminal illness.

Furthermore, the palliative care provider can provide grief counseling to the parents as well as the child. As a result, everyone is better able to cope with the grief associated with the terminal illness.

Do Not Overlook The Benefits Of A Quality Palliative Care Provider

Regardless of the level of care that a loving parent believes that he or she can provide, a quality palliative care provider is better able to provide that sort of primary care to the terminally ill child.

In addition, the provider can provide ancillary services to both the parent and the child to ease the pain associated with this pain of grief within the family.

I would encourage parents to consider the benefits of a quality palliative care provider before attempting to go it alone.

They can provide services necessary to allow the parent to spend as much time as possible loving their dying child.

By Keith Manning | Posted in Hospice, Palliative Care | Tagged death and dying, dying children, Hospice, Palliative Care, pediatric palliative care, pediatrics, terminal illness, terminally ill children | Comments (0)

Grief Counseling: Explore The Benefits Of A Grief Therapist

July 11, 2009 – 10:23 am

From the day that you were born, you began to die.

Two things in life are inevitable, death and taxes. You can evade taxes, but you cannot evade death.

Even though you intuitively know that everyone must eventually die, it is little consolation where you are looking at your loved one’s casket being lowered into the ground.

As with other major events in life, it is usually a good idea to talk to someone about the death of a loved one.

Grief counseling is the specialized form of therapy that is specifically designed to assist survivors cope with grief depression and loss.

By Keith Manning | Posted in Coping With Grief, Grief counseling | Tagged clinical depression, Coping With Grief, dealing with grief, Grief counseling, grief counselor, grief depression, grief therapist, grief therapy, loss, Stages Of Grief | Comments (0)

Dealing With Grief? Let’s Review The Five Stages Of Grief

July 10, 2009 – 9:09 pm

I would like to discuss my experiences dealing with grief. I have suffered the loss of a parent, loss of a child and the loss of a marriage. Grieving is a very personal experience for everyone. I have learned that no one can or should tell you how to grieve.

And, that is not my intent here.

Hopefully, this article will explain to you what you are feeling as you suffer the effects of your bereavement.

At some time in life we all feel loss and must find a way to cope with it. Here is a quick overview of the five stages of grief:

The First Stage In Dealing With Grief Is Denial

In this stage, you will refuse to acknowledge the existence of the loss. You will try to rationalize that your life is the same as before the death of a loved one. You will find that you will continue to perform the same rituals that existed before the loss. You will leave the deceased’s room and possessions in place. Any attempt disturb your makeshift shrine or make changes will cause you intense anger.

By Keith Manning | Posted in Coping With Grief, Grief And Depression, Stages Of Grief | Tagged 5 stages of grief, bereavement, clinical depression, Coping With Grief, counseling, dealing with grief, five stages of grief, grief, grief counselor, grief depression, Jo, suicide, The Samaritans | Comments (0)

Grief Depression: Coping With The Stages Of Grief

July 9, 2009 – 2:28 pm

Grief depression (not to be confused with clinical depression) is a healthy and natural response to the loss of a loved one.

As you are a unique person, you will experience grief and depression in your own unique way. However, you must also be sure that you are dealing with grief in a healthy way. Otherwise, you may have positive or negative long-term effects from your bereavement process.

Common Characteristics Of Grief Depression

Normal characteristics of grief related depression include the expected symptoms such as: apathy, lethargy, and sorrow. Usually, over time, these symptoms will subside as you work though the stages of grief. However, grief related depression can manifest itself again and again as special occasions and holidays come and go throughout the year. Each special occasion is another reminder that you will not share another special moment with the loved one again.

Overview Of The Kubler-Ross Stages Of Grief

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross released her Five Stages Of Grief. The stages were studies and developed as Kubler-Ross worked with terminally ill patients. These five stages of grief have also been found to apply to the behavior of survivor loved one’s dealing with death of a loved one. To summarize Kubler-Ross’ work, the Five Stages Of Grief are:

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance.

These five stages of grief have served as the “gold standard” when discussing the bereavement process of a person suffering from grief related depression.

By Keith Manning | Posted in Coping With Grief, Grief And Depression, Stages Of Grief | Tagged acceptance, anger, bargaining, bereavement, bereavement counselor, clinical depression, Coping With Grief, dealing with grief, Denial, depression, grief counselor, grief depression, grief related depression, Kubler-Ross, Stages Of Grief, trauma | Comments (3)