Are You Coping With Loss In A Healthy Way?

The loss of a pet, a friend, or a loved one can be overwhelming, especially for young people who have never experienced grief and may not know what to do. The crushing sadness can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as denial or obsession. Use this quiz to help you find out if you are dealing with loss healthily.This interactive tool can help you determine whether you are coping with loss healthily. There is no one correct way to grieve, but the inability to tolerate engulfing loss can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Although this tool is not for diagnosis, it may help you determine whether you should seek help from your doctor.

Part of grieving is allowing yourself compassion and accepting that the feelings you are experiencing are okay and that there is no such thing as normal when it comes to loss. Some people experience tremendous sadness, while others’ emotions are mild or numbed. Others may experience grief physically as pain in the back or elsewhere.

However, a persistent and prolonged preoccupation with the grief – for more than six months – that interferes with your day-to-day life may indicate unhealthy coping mechanisms. If you are experiencing prolonged grief symptoms, consider talking to a primary care physician or licensed therapist.

The more healthy your coping mechanisms are, the higher/lower your score will be. Your score will appear as one of the following:

You are unlikely to have healthy coping skills.
You are healthily coping with loss.

As with all check-up tools, this tool gives you a place to start. Remember that a higher/lower score does not necessarily mean you’re coping with grief healthily. Also, a lower/higher score does not always mean you are mourning loss unhealthily. However, using this tool is not a substitute for a thorough evaluation by a therapist.

Your Results Section

(I am not sure if this is automatic after the results, but this is the format on the website; I just replicated it to fit the subject.)

You are healthily coping with loss.

It is highly likely that you are coping with loss healthily. But, if you are worried about certain symptoms, talk to your doctor.

This tool has been proven by research to help identify mental health disorder symptoms. MHA’s tools provide an anonymous, free, and private way to learn about your mental health and if you are showing warning signs of a mental illness. This is not a diagnosis, but it can be a helpful tool for starting a conversation with your doctor or a loved one about your mental health.