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Feeling Loved After Losing a Loved One to Addiction
Hope After Loss Grief Support Groups
Written By
Hope After Loss Team
Feeling Loved After Losing a Loved One to Addiction
February is the month that most of us will celebrate Valentine’s Day. If you are in a committed relationship, this special day may bring surprises, special dinners, gifts, and other creative ways to celebrate your loved one!
It’s usually a day filled with joy. But we as grievers may not feel the same toward LOVE that we once did, especially if our grief comes from losing a loved one to addiction. In my early years of grief, I struggled to be able to feel happiness and joy in the same way I did when I had my daughter with me, physically.
Honestly, it was hard to walk through each day and find beauty or a reason to celebrate anything. There wasn’t any anticipation of the future and what it would bring. There was only one thing that I could feel, and that was the closeness of God through the Holy Spirit. I found God in the people who were nurturing and ministering to me through the abundance of love they had in their hearts. It was incredible how much love they had for me and my daughter, Lacy.
Eventually, I started feeling a calling inside that God wanted me to have that type of love. The kind you can continuously give repeatedly and never run out of. The kind of love that can only be manifested in knowing God and walking in His truth.
In 1 Cor. 13:13 it says, “Three things that will last forever — Faith, Hope & Love — the greatest of these is Love.”
Love gives the power to change the way someone feels. By giving others what God has already given us, we have the opportunity daily to transform what is going on in another person’s life. Something as simple as a kind word can change how someone feels because it interrupts what’s happening inside of them — emotionally, mentally, and even physically. It reminds them that they’re not invisible.
When I lived in Tennessee, a lot of people — mostly women — were so generous with kind words that I remember feeling a little uncomfortable at first. But once I got used to it, I enjoyed being called “Sweetie, Darling, Precious, Sugar, and Honey!”
When you’re stressed or hurting, your thoughts often turn harsh and negative. A kind word can override that noise and give your mind something gentler to repeat instead. It lowers the emotional tension in the body. Kindness isn’t just emotional — it’s physical. Warm words can slow your breathing, ease tight shoulders, and calm the nervous system. You literally feel lighter. It restores hope in small but real ways.
A single sentence — “You’re doing better than you think” or “I’m glad you’re here” — can reopen the door to hope when it feels closed. Kind words don’t erase pain, but they give you enough footing to take the next step. And sometimes that’s all you need. Scripture puts it plainly: “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.” Proverbs 12:25
And here’s the part people often miss: kind words work just as powerfully when you speak them to yourself. The way you talk to yourself today will shape how you feel tomorrow. If you are struggling to find love and purpose in this world.
Remember these few things:
1. You can speak life-changing words to yourself and to the people that you encounter today.
2. You can practice giving to others what you are seeking for yourself.
3. If you need to feel loved today, God is there for you if you earnestly seek him. He can be your source of encouragement.
“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13.
With hope,
Rhonda Kemp, Lacy’s Mom
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