Seven levels of grief

Joseba Achotegui, a Spanish psychiatrist dedicated to the issue of migration, has described the Ulysses Syndrome, characterized and described in people who leave their land and suffer acute and chronic conditions of severe stress, detonating in a syndrome with anxious-depressive symptomatology. Thus, migrants would go through seven different levels of grief. These would be (1): - Grief for the family and loved ones - Grief for language and the inability to communicate - Grief for culture - Grief for the homeland, landscape, the light, the temperature, colors, and smells - Grief for social status - Grief in relationship to the peer group - Grief due to risk regarding physical integrity For a year, together with my wife, we decided to leave our sphere of comfort and stability to take a leap and live outside our country. Through this year we tried to develop our ability to adapt and achieve a new balance. I think that everyone regards the conditions of the migration, has to do it in his own way. Photography is one way that I use to cope with it. This is part of my visual diary. (1) Achotegui; J. - (1999): “Los duelos de la migración: una perspectiva psicopatológica y psicosocial”,