Complicated Grief Getting National Attention

An article published last week in the New York Times, After Death, The Pain That Doesn't Go Away, deals with the sometimes silent problem of complicated grief.  Complicated grief is grief that is prolonged, persistent, and severe and is sometimes referred to as "abnormal grief".  It interferes with a person's entire life, stripping them of their interests and desires in life and often takes the form of severe depression.

Complicated grief is being considered for spot in the DSM-V,the American Psychiatric Association's handbook for diagnosing mental disorders.  Until now, complicated grief hasn't been thought of as an actual mental disorder itself but rather an aspect of another existing disorder (think depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc).  That will all change if the decision is made to include complicated grief in the DSM-V, which is due out in 2012.

While there is no handbook for how one should grieve and for how long, there is a point when grief becomes serious and potentially dangerous.  An example of complicated grief offered in the NYT article:

In 2004, Stephanie Muldberg of Short Hills, N.J., lost her son Eric, 13, to Ewing's sarcoma, a bone cancer. Four years after Eric's death, Ms. Muldberg, now 48, walked around like a zombie. "I felt guilty all the time, guilty about living," she said. "I couldn't walk into the deli because Eric couldn't go there any longer. I couldn't play golf because Eric couldn't play golf. My life was a mess.

"And I couldn't talk to my friends about it, because after a while they didn't want to hear about it. 'Stephanie, you need to get your life back,' they'd say. But how could I? On birthdays, I'd shut the door and take the phone off the hook. Eric couldn't have any more birthdays; why should I?"

Four years of severe grief will take it's toll on a person's emotional and physical self and needs to be treated.  How can you know if your grief is complicate?

Grief:  What's Normal and What's Not