The Grief Club
by: Melody Beattie
Published by: Hazelden
Buy From Amazon.com
Reviewed by Connie Andersson
Subtitled: The Secret to Getting Through All Kinds of Chang
The New York Times best-selling author of Co-Dependent No More has lived through many crises: becoming sober, living with an alcoholic, losing her son to an accident, getting Hepatitis C, having chronic back problems--and many other losses. So she isn't writing this from a "professional or clinical viewpoint."
"Welcome to the club," someone might say to you (or at least think it) when you have something happen to you they have already experienced. You may see your life in the chapters on death, Alzheimer's, suicide, divorce, job loss, childhood grief, alcoholism, empty nest, and much more.
"Did I do something to tick God off--so that I got to join one of those clubs," we might wonder. Beattie says, whether we believe it or not, life hasn't signaled us out for tragedy, and depersonalizing a loss helps us detach and lessen the pain.
You won't catch trauma from a person grieving or in pain--and much of her book is about seeking and offering help to those who are hurting--one-on-one or as part of a support group.
The other day a woman told me her mother died seven week ago and now her friends are ready for her to be back to her old self. Obviously they are not a member of that club yet--or they'd be more understanding. Relative to grief, Bettie said, you either pay now or you pay later, and she said, "Once I cried for eight years."
She explains radical faith (vs. simple faith: If I am good, only good thing will happen to me). Radical faith means you can be good and still bad things will happen to you--and it's nobody's fault.
Every chapter ended with statistics, such as 2.5 million Americans die every year, and of that, 45-50,000 are under 25.
Well worth your read because everyone will join some kind of "loss" club--whether you want to or not.
Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommend to anyone going through grief, pain or loss--and those who want to understand better.
Author's Web site: http:www.melodybeattie.com
From our armchair to yours...
