Kristina Blake: Hey, I’m Kristina from the Autism News NetWORK and I’m here with Dr. Donnie Blake, Director of Grief Counseling of Agape Hospice, and I’m going to ask him some of your questions.

Kristina Blake: What is grief?

Dr. Donnie Blake: Grief, I want to talk a little bit about grief because grief is different than mourning. Mourning is something you show on the outside when you have loss in your life. It is what you express on the outside of yourself, what people see. People might see you crying, people might see looking sad, and that’s how you express on the outside. Grief is what’s going on internally with you that people cannot see. It’s what you might be experiencing through your grief.

Dr. Donnie Blake: You might be experiencing loneliness with your grief. You might be sleeping, having poor appetite with your grief. Some of the symptoms of grief, you might be having some anxiety with your grief. You might be having lack of sleep with your grief. These are some things that might be going on internally. And that’s the process of your grief, you working, going through your grief process of loss.

Kristina Blake: Does everyone experience grief the same?

Dr. Donnie Blake: I’m glad you asked me that. No. Grief is very individualized. It happens to be a one person experience. It could be the different dynamics. It could be the dynamics could be determined by if you lost a parent, if you lost a spouse, if you lost a grandparent, if you lost a best friend, if… All these things are different, so they’re different dynamics of what determines your grief.

Dr. Donnie Blake: Also, it’s that individualized that one person might deal with grief okay and be able to process it. Another person might have complicated grief and might not be able to deal with it as well, and might have to get extra help and get extra counseling to work through the grief process. Grief is very individualized for everybody, and then everybody experiences grief different. It just depends. It’s very individualized on that person.

Kristina Blake: Well, thank you for taking your time with us.

Dr. Donnie Blake: Thank you, Kristina, for having me here today.

Kristina Blake: Again, I’m Kristina from the Autism News NetWORK.