What happens in our brain when we grieve — and how it helps us stay afloat

Brain Insights

Mary-Frances O'Connor explains the intricate processes our brains undergo during grief, highlighting the distinction between grief and grieving. Grief is an overwhelming emotional state, while grieving involves adapting to the absence of a loved one over time 1. This adaptation process is crucial, as it helps us carry the absence of our loved ones with us, eventually changing our relationship with grief.

The brain also feels that way, as it were, and codes the we as much as the you and the I.

--- Mary-Frances O'Connor

O'Connor notes that prolonged grief disorder affects less than 10% of people, often involving complications like grief-related rumination, which can hinder adaptation to reality 2.

   

Neuroimaging

Neuroimaging studies provide a glimpse into how grief manifests in the brain, revealing activation in regions like the nucleus accumbens, which is linked to reward processing 2. This activation is more pronounced in individuals experiencing complicated grief, suggesting a persistent yearning for the lost loved one.

When the brain is thinking about reward, it really is a signal, you should do this again.

--- Mary-Frances O'Connor

O'Connor explains that this yearning can complicate the grieving process, as the brain struggles to update its understanding of the loss 3.