Grieving someone, whether you knew them personally or not, can feel overwhelming. Your emotions often come in waves and may include sadness, shock, guilt and anger. If you have children, they might have questions that are not easy to answer. And if you are already dealing with anxiety, low mood or another mental health concern, you might find it particularly hard to cope.
During the national period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, you might have experienced difficult emotions – from feeling upset about her death and disorientated about the future to remembering your own loved ones who have died and even contemplating your own mortality.
With news and commentary about the Queen filling our TV screens and social media feeds, the collective grief across our nation was particularly challenging in the emotional aftermath of COVID-19. As Jane Murray, Bereavement Support Service Coordinator at Marie Curie, notes, “Times of collective grief may naturally trigger emotions and memories around unresolved grief from losses in your own life”.
If you or someone you know needs support, we hope you find Good Thinking’s bereavement and wellbeing resources helpful. The most important thing to remember is that it’s OK to feel however you’re feeling – everyone reacts differently to loss and we should always respect this and show kindness to one another.
If you’ve been deeply affected by a recent loss and would like professional support, please visit our Urgent Support page where you’ll find details of 24/7 NHS helplines and other support organisations.
Good Thinking resources
- Apart of Me (app for young people) – this free app draws upon bereavement counselling to creative a supportive and magical 3D world for children aged 12+.
- How to cope with bereavement and grief (advice for adults) – if you have lost a relative or friend, this guide contains advice about dealing with the different stages of grief.
- How to cope with the death of a loved one (advice for young people) – this guide encourages teenagers who have lost a loved one to keep talking and be kind to themselves.
- How to support someone who has lost a loved one (advice for relatives and friends) – in this guide, we provide advice about reaching out to someone who is grieving and helping them to get professional support.
- How to provide culturally sensitive bereavement support (a guide for practitioners) – this guide helps bereavement support providers to give the best possible standard of care to people of all cultures, faiths and religions.
- Faith-based bereavement resources – working with faith leaders and community groups, we have developed a series of guides about bereavement across different faiths.
- Mental health and me – this short guide helps you to manage anxiety, stress, low mood and sleeping problems.
- Self-assessments – our clinically-validated self-assessments help you to understand your mental health and give you trusted medical advice.
Other resources
- Grief for Her Majesty The Queen (Cruse)
- Grieving for a public figure (Sue Ryder)
- How moments of national or collective grief can help us process personal loss (Marie Curie)
- Let’s talk about funerals (Cruse)
- How to talk to children about the death of the Queen (Winston’s Wish)
- How to talk to your young child about death, loss and grief (BBC)
- Support after sudden bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic (Thrive LDN)
