Grief Prevention: Early Vaccination?

Any good nurse will tell you that the easiest way to stay healthy is to use preventive medicine. One of the best methods for this is vaccination. 
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (sorry the US version was lengthy and obnoxious) here's how vaccines work:

• Most vaccines contain a little bit of a disease germ that is weak or dead. Vaccines do NOT contain the type of germ that makes you sick. Some vaccines do not contain any germs.
• Having this little bit of the germ inside your body makes your body's defence system build antibodies to fight off this kind of germ. Antibodies help trap and kill germs that could lead to disease.
• Your body can make antibodies in two ways: by getting the disease or by getting the vaccine. Getting the vaccine is a much safer way to make antibodies without having the suffering of the disease itself and the risk of becoming disabled or even dying.
• Antibodies stay with you for a long time. They remember how to fight off the germ. If the real germ that causes this disease (not the vaccine) enters your body in the future, your defence system knows how to fight it off.
• Often, your defence system will remember how to fight a germ for the rest of your life. Sometimes, your defence system needs a booster shot to remind it how to fight off this germ.

      So the thought occurred to me as I was driving home from work, Grief must be like this. It is a germ right? A germ that invades the body, terrorizing the heart and soul, winding its way through the brain and entering the mind...And it can be a debilitating illness, a heartbreaking loss, literally sometimes a killer, whether through physical problems or psychological ones...why not create a vaccine for it? 

       Heck, if getting the antibodies inside our bodies to fight off Grief is all we'd need to ward off future pain, let's do it! If getting the vaccine is the "safer way...without having the suffering of the disease...and risk becoming disabled or even dying" from it, I'm all for creating the GRIEF VACCINE. Who's with me? 

        You're not lining up? But the antibodies would "stay with you for a long time and remember how to fight this disease." For the rest of your life you would be able to avoid this germ and therefore the whole disease of Grief itself...how could this be a bad idea? Oh sure, the side effects, right? 

Possible Side Effects Include: 

• Redness, Swelling, Irritation to injection site.
• Pain
• Sleep difficulties, Exhaustion
• Poor appetite or overeating
• Shakiness or trembling, Dizziness
• Listlessness, Numbness
• Disorientation
• Migraines or headaches
• Crying
• Shortness of breath, Sighing

       Well, the side effects themselves are really a smaller, shorter version of Grief. We can get through the short term side effects right? Hmm, then there is that frequency factor. "Sometimes, your defence system needs a booster shot to remind it how to fight off this germ." How often would we need a booster do you think? Every few years? Might still be worth it, though I know you're not keen on needles. 

       Although, there is one other concern I should probably tell you about- the different strains of the Grief. Like the Influenza, I imagine there are varying types of this particular germ. You might need a few different shots to prevent against all the loss germs that fall under the Grief disease, including but of course not limited to:

• Death of a loved one
• Divorce or relationship breakup
• Loss of health
• Losing a job
• Loss of financial stability
• A miscarriage
• Retirement
• Death of a pet
• Loss of a cherished dream
• A loved one’s serious illness
• Loss of a friendship
• Loss of safety after a trauma
• Selling the family home

       I hear your concern. I understand your frustration too. How can we know what we need to prevent against? Will all these losses really come to us? Why immunize ourselves against something that may never happen? And are we not strong enough to survive the Grief even if we do get hit with it?
      Perhaps in this fight, preventive medicine can't save us. Maybe we can't choose to immunize ourselves against the losses we don't know are coming. Maybe we can't take small, infrequent exposure in the hope that one day, when the Grief does find us, that we are ready for the immensity of that loss and pain and heartbreak. Maybe when the Grief finds us, the best we can do is find tissues to dry the tears, a comfortable shoulder to cry on, and the strength to ride out the pain.