• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Psychologenie

Psychologenie

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Articles

Complicated Grief: Coming to Terms with Loss

Home / Uncategorized / Complicated Grief: Coming to Terms with Loss

 

Losing someone you love changes you forever. The resulting grief is unfortunately a common experience that all people face. Complicated grief is the inability to adjust to the loss.

Most people that experience normal grief  have an intense period of sorrow and numbness. They may even feel guilty and angry. When grief has a natural progression these feelings eventually begin to ease. Over time it becomes  possible to gain some acceptance of the loss. And that allows the person to move forward.

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk...

Let's Work Together!

For some people, feelings of loss are totally debilitating. And it never gets better. The deep emotions continue, even after time passes. This unresolved grief is referred to as “complicated grief.” Or it is also known as a “persistent complex bereavement disorder”. 

In complicated grief, pain and hopelessness is severe. The despondency could even result in suicidal feelings. The person experiencing loss is unable to recover. And finds it impossible to resume their life at a functional level.

Different people follow different paths through the grieving experience. The order and timing of those phases may vary from person-to-person.  And the variations and differences are normal. 

 

Five Stages of Grief 

  1. Denial

  2. Anger

  3. Bargaining

  4. Depression

  5. Acceptance

Steps to Healing 

 

Acceptance-At some point you must be able to understand the truth of your loss. At that time you will have gone through the five stages of grief.

Feel Your Feelings– Rather than feeling numb or self medicating you feel and experience the pain of your loss.

Adjust Your Life– Adjusting to a replacement reality with the understanding  the deceased is not any longer present

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk...

Let's Work Together!

Have a Support Group– Having other relationships with friends and family is a key. The close connections with other people allow you to return to the new reality of your life.

Get Help- If you’re unable to maneuver through these stages after 12 to 18 months, you probably have a complicated grief. If so, seek treatment. It can assist you come to terms together with your loss and reclaim a way of acceptance and peace.

Immediately after a loss, many experience devastation. For several months, the signs and symptoms of normal grief are deep. Actually, it is how long you experience that determines if it is complicated grief. While normal grief symptoms start to fade,  complicated grief lingers. Complicated grief is a heightened state. And a prolonged state of mourning that blocks all healing.

Signs and Symptoms of Complicated Grief

  • Intense sorrow, pain and rumination over the loss of your beloved
  • Focus remains on your loved one’s death
  • Inability to reconnect relationships; including with children,friends and close family members
  • Constantly focused on all reminders of the beloved or even excessive avoidance of memories or reminders
  • Intense and protracted longing or pining for the deceased
  • Problems accepting the death
  • Numbness or detachment
  • Bitterness about your loss
  • Feeling that life holds no meaning or purpose
  • Lack of trust in people
  • Inability to enjoy life or remember positive experiences with the one you lost

 

Complicated grief also could also be indicated if you continue to:

  • Have trouble completing normal routines
  • Isolate from others and withdraw from social activities
  • Experience depression, deep sadness, guilt or self-blame
  • Believe that you simply did something wrong or could have prevented the death
  • Feel life isn’t worth living without the person you lost
  • Wish you had died alongside your beloved

Like it? Share it!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
« Previous Post
Next Post »

Category iconUncategorized Tag iconcomplicated grief,  five stages of grief,  grief,  loss,  unresolved grief

Get Updates Right to Your Inbox

Sign up to receive the latest and greatest articles from our site automatically each week (give or take)...right to your inbox.
Blog Updates

Further Insights

stressed
10 Signs You May Be Stressed-Out
May 10, 2020
reduce stress
 4 Steps to Reduce Stress  
May 10, 2020
brainexercising
Brain Training or Exercising Your Mind Like a Muscle
April 22, 2020

Primary Sidebar

Search

Categories

  • Alternative Therapies
  • Antidepressants
  • Benzodiazepines
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • Uncategorized

Latest Articles

Woman speaking with a therapist

Psych FAQ – What Principle Underlies Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Person sitting at computer with notepad

Pros & Cons of Online Mental Health Therapy

woman holding her abdomen

What’s the Safest Antidepressant in Liver Health?

magic mushroom growing in dirt

Psychological Benefits of Psilocybin Nasal Spray

Exploring the website?

Our site includes quite a bit of content, so if you're having an issue finding what you're looking for, go on ahead and use that search feature there!

Footer

We hope you are enjoying Psychologenie - we provide informative and helpful articles about traditional and alternative therapy methods and medications that you can come back to again and again when you have questions or want to learn more.
  • Facebook
  • RSS

Explore Site

  • Home
  • About
  • Articles

Copyright © Psychologenie & Buzzle.com, Inc.
6789 Quail Hill Pkwy, Suite 211 Irvine CA 92603

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsAccept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.