Identifying Types of Loss and Grief: Part Two
Welcome back to our two-part series on identifying different types of loss and grief. Last week, we clarified types of loss that individuals may experience. This post will explore different types of grief that may occur after a loss experience. As with defining loss, there is nuance involved with organizing such a broad concept as grief. If you find it helpful to bring some structure to your understanding of grief, then read on.
Anticipatory grief: this is a type of grief an individual may experience leading up to (in anticipation of) a loss. Commonly experienced by those grieving a loss due to medical issue (e.g. cancer) or ambiguous loss (e.g. dementia). Experiencing grief over a period of time can be disorienting and exhausting, as one’s nervous system is attempting to prepare for an experience that it fears, yet grieving over something that has not yet happened.
Abbreviated grief: this term refers to individuals who seem to have a shorter-than-expected experience of grief after a loss. For example, a spouse remarrying quickly after a loss, may indicate the presence of abbreviated grief. This may be a more common experience for those who experience significant anticipatory grief before a loss event, as much of their grieving process has unfolded by the time the loss event finally occurs.
Delayed grief: this term refers to grief that is experience long after a loss event. For some, their nervous system goes into a protective state to block experiencing active grief after a loss. This way of coping may go on for years, until another event opens that door to grief. Another example maty be: an individual who has been in active, long-term substance use for years, ceasing use and finding their way to grief that stems from earlier in their life.
Collective grief: At some point, most people will experience a collective grief, which effects a community at-large. If you lived through the Covid-19 pandemic, you likely noticed the intense grief that many of us held as we were separated from friends and family, lost jobs or careers, and held fear of the unknown future. Collective grief is often a response after natural disasters, school shootings, war, or other public traumatic events.
Disenfranchised grief: the type of grief is marked by the experience of invalidation. When an individual’s grief is assessed as unworthy, their grief becomes disenfranchised. Examples may be an individual grieving the loss of an ex-partner, or grief due to a culturally stigmatized loss like a death due to overdose or suicide. Disenfranchised grief can also occur when there is a significant shift in relationship, like that resulting from a traumatic brain injury or imprisonment. The ambiguous quality of loss in those relationships leads to an often unacknowledged grief.
Complicated grief: the type of grief is sometimes called prolonged grief, as it identifies the ongoing, intense grief experience that significantly affects an individual’s functioning for a long period with no real improvement. Complicated grief may be seen more often in the profound experience of the loss of a child. Due to its complex, ongoing nature, complicated grief may be best suited for individualized care with a mental health professional.
Chronic grief: this is an alternative label for the prolonged grief experience, noting the persistent quality of ongoing grief with no improvement.
At this point, your head may be swimming with all of the terminology of grief and loss. As grief is such an expansive topic, researchers will likely continue their efforts to give structure and definition to the field. While this effort is important in the creation of evidence-based theories and practices in mental healthcare, you may find looking at these lists a bit overwhelming. Know that you can take what resonates, and leave the rest.
We will all come to know grief and loss at some point, in our own ways. We hope that this list of terminology can help inform your next steps on the path of understanding and carrying your grief forward.