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Thread// This past January I did a @TEDTalks about reframing grief for children. #grief #loss #Mentalhealth https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_atwood_it_s_time_we_reframe_grief_for_children?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
If I had known that just a few weeks later we’d be in the biggest public health crisis of our lifetimes, I probably would have ‘reframed’ my talk to speak directly to adults. New title: “What is there to Gain from Loss? - Time to Reframe Grief in our Culture”
The reality is we need to reframe grief for ourselves, as adults, in order to have a healthier world. We needed a reframing before, but now we need it urgently.
We’re experiencing unprecedented levels of loss and grief, death-related and beyond. And I am concerned because there are so few conversations about the impact that it will have on our society, in the months, years & generations to come. Yeah there are headlines, but we need more
As is common in society, the individual loss is a bell curve - some of us are experiencing grief way more intensely than others, but that shouldn’t matter. If we aren’t all acknowledging our own grief while acknowledging the grief around us, we are missing the moment.
Stigma remains our #1 barrier to treating mental illness. However if we normalized grief and understood that we must support loss as it occurs, we’d prevent a lot of the detrimental outcomes in mental illness. We would have less barrier because we would have less illness.
I respect the importance of treating mental illness, I respect genetics is a factor, but we need to realize we will always be playing catch up this way. Instead, we should aspire to build up mental health by supporting emotional trauma at the very point of origin. Like right now.
Acknowledging loss, ie when we are deprived of something or someone of value, and then incentivizing conversation to promote healthy expression around the grief that follows, is critical. Not repressing and waiting, but doing it now. This is how we build up mental health.
We’ve seen this work at Kate’s Club, no reason it can’t work for adults. Is it possible to change? How do we prove that there is a lot to gain from loss? how do we incentivize paying attention to the pain now, rather than trapping it for it show up later and in unwanted ways? 
