Nika’s Reviews > The Year of Magical Thinking > Status Update
Nika
is 19% done
I learned for example that the most frequent immediate responses to death were shock, numbness, and a sense of disbelief: “Subjectively, survivors may feel like they are wrapped in a cocoon or blanket; to others, they may look as though they are holding up well. Because the reality of death has not yet penetrated awareness, survivors can appear to be quite accepting of the loss.”
— Jan 05, 2026 12:26AM
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Nika’s Previous Updates
Nika
is 19% done
“Research to date has shown that, like many other stressors, grief frequently leads to changes in the endocrine, immune, autonomic nervous, and cardiovascular systems; all of these are fundamentally influenced by brain function and neurotransmitters.”
— Jan 05, 2026 12:29AM
Nika
is 19% done
In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature.
— Jan 05, 2026 12:22AM
Nika
is 15% done
The mourner is in fact ill, but because this state of mind is common and seems so natural to us, we do not call mourning an illness…. To put my conclusion more precisely: I should say that in mourning the subject goes through a modified and transitory manic-depressive state and overcomes it.
— Jan 03, 2026 03:30AM
Nika
is 12% done
I had entered at the moment it happened a kind of shock in which the only thought I allowed myself was that there must be certain things I needed to do.
— Jan 01, 2026 11:45AM
Nika
is 12% done
Grief is different. Grief has no distance. Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailiness of life. Virtually everyone who has ever experienced grief mentions this phenomenon of “waves.”
— Jan 01, 2026 11:44AM
