Coping with Grief and Stress

Source: Edgar Bertram Mackennal, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

One of the girls in my younger son’s Special Education class died yesterday. I’m feeling shock, sadness, grief, and stress at hearing and processing the news. It feels like the world should stop for a time and take notice. And while some people do, the world keeps spinning and life continues on as if nothing ever happened. But life would be at a forever standstill if we paused for every death.

There are so many ways to deal with grief:

Comfort eating.

Not eating at all—when the stomach simply shuts down. (I do both of these things under different circumstances).

A friend of mine smokes cigarettes to cope with her stress.

Crying.

Listening to music (sometimes sad; sometimes happy).

There are too many coping mechanisms to name, really.

So today, I spent extra time in my younger son’s classroom just because I needed to. Then I took my Mac, my trilogy notes, my index cards, my earbuds, and a bottle of water to the public library. I needed to jump into my fictional world for a while (escapism) and delve into creative endeavors. Sometimes it’s the only control I feel I have in an out-of-control world. Being a writer is a little like playing God. And there’s something reassuring in being able to force things to go the way I want them to when, in reality, they often don’t. Because in the real world where I live, children should never die.

What do you do when you’re grieving or dealing with stress? Do you eat ice cream? Paint with oils? Veg out in front of the TV? Or does your world come to a screeching halt?