Danette hosts a solo episode of Grief Unfiltered to share who she was before her dad died in 2016 and how grief changed her. She describes being tightly wound, reactive, and focused on control and small inconveniences, then explains how losing a steady presence forced a new perspective where she stopped sweating the small stuff and became less reactive. Grief reshaped how she views time, making her prioritize connection, take chances, and live more in the moment, lessons she connects to her dad’s outlook and his unfulfilled retirement plans. She also shares how grief has made her more present as a mom to her son Owen, cherishing ordinary moments. Danette notes grief still brings sudden waves, especially as her son grows, but she’s learned joy and sadness can coexist and that grief changes shape over time, offering hope to those early in loss and pointing listeners to their journal and course for support.

00:00 Welcome to Grief Unfiltered

00:35 Danette Solo Story

01:38 Who I Was Before

03:52 Losing Dad Changed Everything

05:19 Stop Sweating Small Stuff

07:35 Time Feels Different Now

10:18 Showing Up as a Mom

12:08 What Matters Most

12:39 Loving Who I Became

13:40 Waves That Still Hit

15:38 Hope for Early Grief

16:09 Resources and Goodbye

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

Krystle from Grief Unfiltered shares a solo episode about her grief journey after her dad’s stage-four lung cancer diagnosis 13 days after the birth of her second daughter in 2015, and his death 10 months later. She describes years of worsening anxiety that began around her 2012 honeymoon, including panic attacks, severe agoraphobia, postpartum depression/anxiety, and later health anxiety that intensified after her dad’s decline and death. Krystle explains how avoidance affected daily life and parenting until her husband urged her to seek help; about two and a half years after her dad died, she started therapy, used grounding and exposure exercises, and gradually regained independence. In January 2022 she began sertraline, pushed through early side effects, and found medication plus therapy life-changing. She encourages listeners to seek support, find the right therapist fit, and care for themselves while honoring loved ones.

00:00 Welcome to Grief Unfiltered

00:34 Why a Solo Story

01:34 Life Before the Loss

02:36 Anxiety Begins to Surface

04:32 Honeymoon Panic Trigger

06:55 Agoraphobia Takes Hold

07:47 Postpartum Struggles

10:01 The Cancer Phone Call

12:23 Stage Four Reality

15:19 Ten Months of Anticipatory Grief

17:12 Aftermath and Health Anxiety

20:28 Naming Anxiety and Hitting Bottom

21:46 Choosing Therapy

24:44 Therapy Tools and Small Wins

27:35 COVID and Setbacks

29:13 Trying Medication

30:53 Life Gets Lighter

33:26 What I Want You to Know

36:18 Support and Final Goodbye

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

Krystle and Danette of Grief Unfiltered discuss how grief evolves rather than fading in a straight line, sharing how losing their father felt consuming at first and later became more wave-like, with triggers such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays shifting from dread to moments of honoring and celebration. Krystlel explains that time alone didn’t help until she did the work, describing a major turning point around the five-year mark after therapy helped her channel her dad’s legacy of helping others into creating Grow Through Your Grief, an online course, and a journal. They explore why later grief can be confusing, emphasizing it can resurface without meaning failure, and suggest returning to basic self-care tools—movement, hydration, journaling, balanced rest, and small habit changes—while rejecting timelines, avoiding comparisons, and allowing joy and grief to coexist.

00:00 Welcome to Grief Unfiltered

00:33 How Grief Evolves

01:24 Early Grief Consumes

03:49 Time Plus Work Heals

05:27 Anxiety and Firsts

07:06 From Dread to Celebration

11:44 Five Year Turning Point

15:07 Why Later Grief Confuses

20:14 Tools for Later Stages

22:32 Self Care Small Steps

26:06 Permission for Joy

28:44 No Timeline Keep Going

31:37 Closing and Resources

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

Krystle and Danette of Grief Unfiltered discuss a common but rarely spoken part of grief: when initial support fades while the loss still feels intense. Using their father’s death as an example, Krystle describes overwhelming check-ins and help up to the funeral, followed by an abrupt drop-off that felt isolating and created pressure to “be better.” They explore why people stop reaching out, including discomfort, fear of saying the wrong thing, and misleading impressions from social media. They encourage grievers to ask for connection and set expectations about whether they want to talk or cry, and encourage supporters to ask how someone is truly doing. They emphasize that grief has no timeline, joy and grief can coexist, and healing requires intentional work such as therapy and journaling.

00:00 Welcome to Grief Unfiltered

00:33 When the World Moves On

01:29 Support Fades After Funeral

06:22 Why It Gets So Lonely

08:33 Awkwardness and Social Media

13:17 Ask for Real Support

14:03 What Helped Us Cope 1

5:04 Therapy and Doing the Work

20:20 Living With Grief Long Term

22:09 Final Takeaways and Resources

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

Krystle and Danette of Grief Unfiltered discuss unexpected grief triggers that arise outside obvious dates like anniversaries, such as songs, smells, grocery-store moments, milestones, and even feeling peaceful. They share personal examples, including Danette being triggered by a neighbor at the family farm who “loved” their dad and Krystle being hit by a Cheerios box campaign that referenced “dad” and “dog.” They explore how hearing stories about their dad can feel therapeutic on their own terms but triggering when initiated by others, and emphasize that triggers aren’t setbacks because grief isn’t linear and can persist even 10 years later. They suggest acknowledging triggers, letting emotions happen, talking to someone, journaling, therapy, and nature, and note their journal is available at growthroughyourgrief.net.

00:00 Welcome to Grief Unfiltered

00:33 Unexpected Grief Triggers

01:54 Farm Encounter Trigger

04:43 Grocery Aisle Gut Punch

06:42 Talking About Dad

13:39 Are Triggers Setbacks

17:56 Joy and Guilt After Loss

20:59 Tools to Handle Triggers

23:14 Journal and Closing 

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

Krystle and Danette from Grief Unfiltered discuss “functional grief,” describing how people can keep working, parenting, and meeting responsibilities while internally carrying intense exhaustion, sadness, and emotional weight after losing a loved one. They share personal experiences after their dad’s death, including masking feelings in public, feeling judged or misunderstood, questioning their own grief when they appear “fine,” and crashing at home from the effort of coping. They highlight how others often assume functioning means healing, leading to less support, and note the loneliness that follows when check-ins fade. They emphasize permission to not be okay, the importance of processing grief rather than suppressing it, and tools that helped them, including journaling, therapy, and antidepressants, while encouraging listeners to seek support and care for their emotional and physical wellbeing.

00:00 Welcome to Grief Unfiltered

00:33 What Is Functional Grief

02:19 Krystle's Robotic Routine

05:12 When the Mask Slips

07:52 Highlight Reels and Assumptions

10:09 What Happens at Home

12:36 Questioning Your Own Grief

17:47 Why It’s So Exhausting

21:11 What Others Misunderstand

22:41 Permission to Ask for Help

24:07 From Surviving to Therapy

31:00 Journaling and Final Encouragement

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

In this solo episode, Krystle explores the immense challenge of grieving the loss of a loved one while parenting young children. The narrator shares their deeply personal story of losing a father to cancer shortly after welcoming their second daughter, and discusses the emotional turmoil and exhaustion that accompanied trying to parent through such immense grief. The episode delves into the struggle of balancing motherhood with anticipatory grief, the guilt and fears that arise, and the moments of small joy that act as a lifeline. Listeners are reminded that parenting doesn't demand perfection, merely presence, even through tear-stained and vulnerable moments. This story is a testament to resilience, the importance of self-care, and the reminder that it's okay to not have it all together while navigating the intersections of grief and parenthood.

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

 In this solo episode of 'Grief Unfiltered,' Danette Sugg shares her deeply personal experience with anxiety following the loss of her father. She describes how grief unexpectedly manifested as anxiety, impacting her daily life and well-being. Danette discusses her struggle with the physical symptoms of anxiety, how she learned to recognize and manage it, and the importance of self-compassion and support systems. This episode offers a raw and honest exploration of grief and mental health, providing listeners with insights and relatable experiences to help them on their own healing journey.  

00:00 Welcome to Grief Unfiltered

00:38 Danette's Solo Episode: Anxiety and Grief

01:21 The Unexpected Physical Impact of Grief

03:28 Recognizing and Addressing Anxiety

08:55 Practical Tips for Managing Anxiety

14:57 The Importance of Support Systems

17:22 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

In this episode, we discuss what has genuinely helped us through our grief and identify the well-intended actions that inadvertently made it harder. We emphasize that true support is about being present rather than fixing the grief. Key points include the importance of having a safe space to express emotions, connecting with others who've experienced similar losses, and the therapeutic benefits of creative outlets and therapy. We also advise those supporting grieving individuals to take initiative and offer direct help, rather than leaving decisions to the bereaved. Finally, we highlight the importance of continued support beyond the initial months of loss. Authenticity, empathy, and presence are underscored as vital elements in grief support.

00:00 Introduction to Grief Support

00:54 Personal Stories of Grief

02:20 The Power of Vulnerability

04:55 Therapeutic Activities for Grief

10:16 Challenges and Missteps in Grief Support

15:48 Advice for the Grieving and Their Supporters

19:27 Practical Tips for Supporting the Grieving

27:56 Final Thoughts and Resources

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.

In this episode of Grief Unfiltered, sisters Krystle and Danette discuss their unique grieving processes after losing their father. They share personal experiences about how grief manifested differently for each of them despite facing the same loss. The conversation covers the early days of grief, the relief and challenges of losing a loved one to a prolonged illness, and how societal and familial expectations can add pressure to the grieving process. They also emphasize the importance of therapy and open communication in healing, offering support and advice for those feeling isolated in their grief.

🌱 Ready to grow through your grief? Get my Befriend Your Grief course for the support and tools needed to transform your pain into a meaningful journey. 

🌧️ Want to see how your grief is affecting you? Download my free quiz and complete it at your own pace. 

🌐 Website: https://www.growthroughyourgrief.net/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthroughyourgrief/

Subscribe to Grief Unfiltered + download each episode on Apple, Spotify, or Android.