Table of Contents
Foreword Mark Nepo xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Part I This Is All Just as Crazy as You Think It Is
Chapter 1 The Reality of Loss 3
Chapter 2 The Second Half of the Sentence: Why Words of Comfort Feel So Bad 13
Chapter 3 It's Not You, it's Us: Our Models of Grief Are Broken 25
Chapter 4 Emotional Illiteracy and the Culture of Blame 39
Chapter 5 The New Model of Grief 57
Part II What to Do with Your Grief
Chapter 6 Living in the Reality of Loss 67
Chapter 7 You Can't Solve Grief, but You Don't Have to Suffer 85
Chapter 8 How (and Why) to Stay Alive 101
Chapter 9 What Happened to My Mind? Dealing with Grief's Physical Side Effects 117
Chapter 10 Grief and Anxiety: Calming Your Mind When Logic Doesn't Work 133
Chapter 11 What Does Art Have to Do with Anything? 149
Chapter 12 Find Your Own Image of "Recovery" 165
Part III When Friends and Family Don't Know What to Do
Chapter 13 Should You Educate or Ignore Them? 181
Chapter 14 Rallying Your Support Team: Helping Them Help You 197
Part IV The Way Forward
Chapter 15 The Tribe of After: Companionship, True Hope, and the Way Forward 215
Chapter 16 Love Is the Only Thing That Lasts 229
Appendix: How to Help a Grieving Friend 237
Notes 243
Resources 247
About the Author 249