Grief has major survival value. People can
literally die from broken hearts.
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Broken heart syndrome, also called stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, can strike even if you’re healthy. (Tako tsubo, by the way, are octopus traps that resemble the pot-like shape of the stricken heart.)
Women are more likely than men to experience the sudden, intense chest pain — the reaction to a surge of stress hormones — that can be caused by an emotionally stressful event. It could be the death of a loved one or even a divorce, breakup or physical separation, betrayal or romantic rejection. It could even happen after a good shock (like winning the lottery.)
Broken heart syndrome may be misdiagnosed as a heart attack because the symptoms and test results are similar. In fact, tests show dramatic changes in rhythm and blood substances that are typical of a heart attack. But unlike a heart attack, there’s no evidence of blocked heart arteries in broken heart syndrome.
In broken heart syndrome, a part of your heart temporarily enlarges and doesn’t pump well, while the rest of your heart functions normally or with even more forceful contractions. Researchers are just starting to learn the causes, and how to diagnose and treat it.
The bad news: Broken heart syndrome can lead to severe, short-term heart muscle failure.
The good news: Broken heart syndrome is usually treatable. Most people who experience it make a full recovery within weeks, and they’re at low risk for it happening again (although in rare cases in can be fatal).
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If you don't emotionally process the traumatic event in your life through the vehicle of grief (and go through all of the stages of grief), you can experience very significant psychological and behavioral side effects. People who refuse to process aka "grieve" their loss, easily develop addictive behavior (sex, drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, etc.). So you really need to respect grief as a necessary, built-in, psychological process and allow your brain to activate it. Denying the significance of the loss in your life, is detrimental to your well-being both short term and long term.
Six Signs of Incomplete Grief | Psychology Today