sarah rose etter
@sarahroseetter

while i was deep in grief, i was researching brain waves & one thing i learned is that during severe depression/grief, we experience theta waves (which usually occur only before deep sleep) while we are awake. we literally sleepwalk through life due to sadness. just wild.

imagine if i was like: wow, this tweet is really doing numbers, here's a link to a salt lamp you can get 20% off with my code GRIEFSQUAD

i guess actually if you are sad, i wrote a sad book that you can pre-order:

anyway there is plenty to read about this, and it's complex, so here are a bunch of the things i was reading: https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035751/…… https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31537100/ https://frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.698753/full…… https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1550059419876807…… https://neurosciencenews.com/theta-wave-emotional-regulation-20908/……

that makes a lot of sense of my year.
– Allison in Brexitland

it made a lot click into place for me too

I have years of memory loss after my big loss - is that related?
– sarah radz

absolutely - if your brain is overwhelmed with managing grief, it has less capacity to remember anything. i genuinely do not remember much in the two years after my dad died suddenly.

This checks out with my experience. I remember so little from the years after I lost my daughter. In many ways it was like I wasn't living the life. On autopilot.
– Julia

losing a child is this way. Interesting how they can view the waves of the brain to actually see deep grief.
– Debbie ᑳᑫᓯᒧᑐᑕᐁ

Oh yeah. This shit sucked. It’s like on auto pilot but with anxiety and wanting to cry
– Julio

Our brain does a whole lot to protect us during those times.
– rion amilcar scott

Fascinating
– StateOfKate

Wow. This explains why I recently realized I can't remember anything from the month after my dad unexpectedly died last year. I think I went to work? I mean, I know I did...I just don't remember even existing.
– Amy Zlatic

I have definitely experienced this.
– Kathleen Maris Paltrineri

This feels true to my experience and what I’ve heard others say. It is a good survival tool. I wish our culture had a universal way to signal when someone is in mourning. I believe we would all benefit.
– Call me Crassanda.

Yes, I remember learning that our grief-brain is akin to experiencing a traumatic brain injury.
– Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein

2:54 PM · May 6, 2023