Although Western medicine has no understanding of the physiological mechanisms involved, the fact that intense grief can shatter a person's health is well-known in all cultures. It is entirely natural to grieve over the death of someone one loves, but after a time it is essential to one's well-being that the sense of loss should diminish in intensity. Some people still feel the loss of someone as keenly years afterwards as they did in the first few weeks and months. This may be evident to the outsider, as the person may still be overtly grief-stricken. However, it is probably more deleterious if a person fails to express the emotion.
Sadness sits heavily on many people.
A sense of loss, disappointment, regret and melancholia are forms of sadness which can permeate a person's spirit. These are not emotions that are freely displayed to others, but if the practitioner achieves an intimate rapport with the patient it may become apparent that sadness has caused dysfunction in the Metal Element. Bed-wetting among children is an example of a symptom often provoked by fearfulness and the escalating spiral of fear leading to tension and pain in childbirth is now receiving much attention. A sudden fright is very unsettling and can sometimes leave its mark upon a person's Heart or Kidneys, but chronic anxiety is usually far more destructive. Anxiety and fearfulness are extraordinarily unpleasant states as they can permeate nearly all the situations of a person's life, from waking through to sleeping.