COMPLICATED GRIEF

For most people, mourning, no matter how intense, follows a similar, variable course.  The grieving is all-consuming at first.  Then, slowly, people begin to move on.

But sometimes, for reasons, the grief lingers, even intensifies.  Until recently, unresolved mourning had no name or formal psychiatric diagnosis; it was often simply considered depression. Now, mental health professionals identify it as a condition: complicated grief.

I couldn't see any way going on without Jeannette.  Years after her death, I still spent days on end in my home crying.  I turned down invitations and my friends and family felt confused and frustrated that I didn't move even after four years of Jeannette's death.

Time has helped me to cope and now I feel like I can think of her and remember the joy of life with her. That alone has given me my life back. 

My life will never be the same again.  I have lost an amazing beautiful child.