Grief metaphors, analogies, and similes people use

A while back, this community was asked to send in the images and comparisons they reach for when trying to put grief into words. One observation that started the conversation: grief can feel less like a single event and more like a lasting condition you carry for the rest of your life. From there, people were invited to share whatever metaphor fit their own experience.

The response was large — dozens of comments came in on the original post, Grief is Like..., and over a hundred more arrived through social media. Below is a condensed selection of what people shared. If you want the fuller context behind each one, the original threads are worth a visit.

Grief is like...

Grief is like a catastrophic physical injury. ~ Louise

Grief is like riding a roller coaster that never stops, with no seatbelt. ~ Kris

Grief is like showing up every day to a job you hate and have no skill for. ~ Louise

Grief is like trying to understand something that can't be understood. ~ Amy

Grief is like a shadow. ~ Ann

Grief is like waiting for a bomb to go off. ~ Joni

Grief is like a strange blend of rebuilding an identity and sifting through bittersweet memory. ~ Peter

Grief is like picking through the rubble left behind after the earthquake of loss. ~ Cathy Lee

Grief is like wading through mud that reaches your hips. ~ Loretta

Grief is like being a walking, dead zombie. ~ Jackie

Grief is like unpredictable weather — sudden storms and showers appear without warning. ~ LauraJay

Grief is like feeling your way through the dark, one slow step at a time. ~ Deb

Grief is like a guilty addiction, one that reminds you of when life still felt right. ~ Geri

Grief is like a boomerang — it keeps returning to wound you all over again. ~ Susan

Grief is like a flashback to a bad acid trip. ~ Phyllis

Grief is like being deeply homesick for a home that no longer exists. ~ Leesa

Grief is like a constant ache that never fully leaves and flares up with certain triggers. ~ Vicki

Grief is like being burned alive. ~ Deborah

Grief is like a landmine. ~ Kevin

Grief is like waking up with a hundred-pound monkey clinging to your back. ~ April

Grief is like living inside an endless nightmare. ~ Kathleen

Grief is like a soaked wool blanket draped over your entire body. ~ Alice

Grief is like carrying an incurable illness. ~ Allen

Grief is like standing inside a twister that's tearing everything apart around you. ~ Leslie

Grief is like losing a piece of who you are. ~ Peter

Grief is like being struck again and again by a tsunami. ~ Teklya

Grief is like living in a permanent state of anxiety. ~ Frankie

Grief is like being the pinball in a game you never agreed to play. ~ Miss Mac

Grief is like watching from the sidelines. ~ Michelle

Grief is like feeling parasites eat away at your insides — you want to be sick but there's nothing left. ~ Kay

Grief is like a bottomless pit. ~ Tara

Grief is like a concussion that drags on for months. ~ Lillian

Grief is like a wound — it heals eventually, but it leaves a scar behind. ~ Theresa

Grief is like waking each morning as a stranger in an unfamiliar land. ~ Elizabeth

* Note: if one of these metaphors is yours and you'd like the credit changed, reach out at [email protected].