A New Normal: Learning to Live with Grief and Loss

by Darlene F. Cross

Everyone experiences loss. The pain of loss-whether it is the loss of a friend or loved one, the loss of a relationship, the loss of a job, or the loss of youth or health-can bring disabling feelings of helplessness, despair, numbness, and disorientation to almost anyone. "A New Normal" invites you behind the closed doors of private counseling, where grief and loss have long been been the focus of healing. Whether you or a loved one are dealing with loss through death, loss of a relationship, loss of a job, or the loss of youth or health, this book offers understanding and hope. Here is a clear, proven road map to life after loss, the road to each reader's own New Normal.

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

We lost my father this summer and I got this book for my mother and my sister--and for me. I am familiar with the grief that goes with divorce, but this is the first big loss since my grandmother died 30 years ago. My dad planned to live until he was one hundred and I believed he would do it. None of us expected a fatal accident. There was no time to prepare or say goodbye. Cross describes it perfectly, "There is simply no way to prepare for this type of loss. Etched into eternal memory is that one phone call, that ominous knock on the door,that impersonal but too-familiar image on the 6 o'clock news. Your mind is screaming, "THIS ISN'T HAPENING!"when clearly your body knows it."

I am also struggling with the new responsibility I have to my mother. He was her total caregiver.

I choose this book from the preview because it gives advice in a practical no-nonense way. Cross gives you permission to take as long as it takes to recover. This book helps guide survivors along the grief process in a unique and uplifting way.

I especially liked the representation of the different types of loss and their impact in Chapter 3. Then Cross addresses the loss by type of relationship and this is something I have rarely seen in grief books. There are tools that we will be able to use in our divorce recovery classes as well--yes, life is going on for me.

The book is full of stories that allow the reader to feel that while their situation is unique they truly are still normal and they will be able to survive the loss and have a new normal--even if it's a normal you would not choose.