The Science & Process of Healing from Grief | Episode 74

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2022

⏱️ 128 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode, I discuss grief and the challenges of processing losses of different kinds. I explain the biological mechanisms of grief, including how neural circuits for emotional and factual memory combine with those for love and attachment, to create feelings of absence and yearning. I discuss how grief is distinct from depression, yet why they can feel so similar. I also provide science-based tools to assist with the grieving process, including how to reframe and remap the relationship with those we have lost while still maintaining a strong emotional connection to them. I also explain the importance of having and building strong foundational psychological and biological states so that we can better cope with grief when it happens. Finally, I describe tools to adjust those states, including those for accessing sleep, managing stress and emotional swings. This episode is for those suffering from grief but also for everyone, given that we all experience grief at some point in our lives. We recorded this episode before the recent mass shooting tragedies in the United States. While we hope the information in this episode will be of use to anyone suffering from grief of any kind and at any time, we are also careful to acknowledge that many people require additional support and resources. For that reason, we include mention of such resources and we generally hope people will access them if needed. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Maui Nui: https://mauinuivenison.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com Timestamps (00:00:00) Grief & Bereavement (00:03:44) Sponsors (00:08:35) Grief vs. Depression, Complicated Grief (00:12:20) Stages of Grief, Individual Variation for Grieving (00:16:05) Grief: Lack & Motivation, Dopamine (00:23:15) Three Dimensions of Relationships (00:29:52) Tool: Remapping Relationships (00:37:15) Grief, Maintaining Emotional Closeness & Remapping (00:44:40) Memories of Loved Ones & Remapping Attachments (00:48:04) Yearning for Loved Ones: Memories vs. Reality, Episodic Memory (00:51:40) Tools: Adaptively Processing Grief, Counterfactual Thinking, Phantom Limbs (01:00:32) Tool: Remembering Emotional Connection & Processing Grief (01:04:03) Memories, Hippocampal Trace Cells & Feeling An Absence (01:10:14) Yearning & Oxytocin, Individualized Grief Cycles (01:18:24) Tool: Complicated Grief & Adrenaline (Epinephrine) (01:24:37) Sentimental Attachment to Objects (01:26:13) Why do Some People Grieve More Quickly? Individual Attachment Capacity (01:29:42) “Vagal Tone,” Heart Rate, Breathwork & Grief Recovery (01:42:32) Complicated Grief & Cortisol Patterns (01:48:50) Tool: Improving Sleep & Grieving (01:54:28) Tools: Grief Processing & Adaptive Recovery (02:03:36) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, Instagram, Twitter, Neural Network Newsletter Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:08.8	I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and
0:12.7	Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today we are discussing grief.
0:18.1	Grief is a natural emotion that most everybody experiences at some point in their life.
0:24.2	However, grief is something that still mystifies most people.
0:27.2	For instance, we often wonder why getting over the loss of somebody or a pet is so
0:34.6	absolutely crushing. In some cases, it's obvious because we had a very close relationship to that person or animal.
0:41.4	But in other cases, it's bewildering because somehow,
0:45.6	despite our best efforts, we are unable to reframe and shift our mind to the idea that
0:50.8	that the person or animal that at one point was here and so very present is now gone.
0:57.4	Today we are going to discuss how we conceptualize grief, both at an emotional and at a logical level.
1:03.6	I'm going to teach you about the neuroscience and the psychology of grief and
1:08.3	incredible findings that have been made in just a few key laboratories that point to the fact that we
1:15.5	essentially map our experience of people in three dimensions.
1:19.2	Let's just give you a little hint of what those dimensions are. They relate to space where people are,
1:25.3	time, when people are, I'll explain what that means, and a dimension called closeness.
1:31.8	And how those three dimensions of space, time, and closeness are what establish very close bonds with people,
1:38.5	and are what require remapping, reorganization within our emotional framework and our logical framework,
1:45.0	when we lose somebody for whatever reason. Within that understanding, I'm confident that you will have greater insight
1:52.6	into the grief process. And should you ever find yourself within the grief process, as I imagine, most everyone will at some point,
2:00.8	you will be able to navigate that process in what psychologists and neuroscientists deem to be the most healthy way of going through grief.
2:08.8	Indeed, moving through grief requires a specific form of neuroplasticity, a reordering of brain connections,
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