Grief can be crippling. Why have we evolved to be so affected by loss?

Grief is universal. It is something almost all of us will go through at some point. And it is something that the people we love will experience when we die.

Grief can be all consuming, it can make everyday tasks like getting out of bed, feel impossible. Which makes listener Oliver from Australia wonder – what is the point? It doesn’t bring what we lost, back.

Why have we evolved to be so affected by loss? Be it the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship or the loss of a job. Does it serve any purpose? Or perhaps it is just the price we pay for being a social species with such strong connections.

Image: Families Mourn Victims of The Tamaulipas Massacre in Tuilelén, Guatemala

Photo by Josue Decavele/Getty Images

Produced by Caroline Steel and presented by Marnie Chesterton for BBC World Service.

Source: CrowdScience – Why does grief leave me feeling this way? – BBC Sounds