Episode 01: The Secret to Surviving Emotional Losses

In this very first episode of Raw and Real, a podcast about people dealing with loss, host Linda Piazza talks about the different types of losses that we typically experience in our lifetime, even the losses that we may assume are quickly forgotten but become repressed. Find out how to survive your personal heart-breaking moments as well as those that your loved ones may encounter. 

Episode Highlights: 

• Linda Piazza lists out the various types of losses, including things we don’t always associate with loss. 
• Miscarriages can create difficult communication situations where loved ones and friends of the people who lost the baby may not know what to say to comfort them or how to share their condolences out of fear of upsetting them.
• People often don’t understand your loss unless they have gone through it themselves.  
• Loneliness can lead people to a dark place and even suicide. 
• Everybody is different. We don’t experience forms of loss the same. 
• What are the common reactions to loss?  
• Don’t feel that there is something wrong with you when undergoing reactions to loss...just don’t stay stuck there.  
• Your lifestyle role typically can change during loss. 
• Denial often becomes an immediate yet temporary coping mechanism when we lose loved ones.   
• You will find peace and gain confidence in the aftermath of loss.  
• Handling loss isn’t a quick fix. It is a journey.  
• Linda Piazza has been dealing with the loss of her sister. 
• Which other losses has Linda Piazza personally gone through?     
• You lose a little bit of yourself in every loss you experience in life? 
• Loss tends to generate more empathy for others facing similar issues. 
• We are mistakenly led to believe that grief has a time limit caused by other people’s discomfort with our sadness.  
• What does survival look like? 
• God meets you where you are at and never leaves you alone.  
• Living is a gift and if we don’t survive our losses, we lose that gift too.   
• Don’t stay stuck in your anger, depression, and frustration.  

3 Key Points:

1. The many forms of loss include: empty nesting, losing a job, losing a house, losing a business partner, the loss of self, death, divorce and losing friendship, miscarriages, a broken heart, and loneliness, 
2. Common reactions to loss are stress, depression, anxiety, isolation, physical reactions like not eating or sleeping, denial, a loss of control, anger, avoidance, and blaming yourself or others. 
3. You survive what you have been through by dealing with your pain and sadness and allowing yourself to feel the pain and sadness.  

Resources Mentioned:

• Raw and Real podcast: Facebook, website