What is Bereavement and Grief?

Grief is the deep sadness you feel when someone you care about dies. Everyone experiences grief differently, and there’s no right or wrong way to feel.

Losing someone important—especially a family member—is a huge and difficult change. But with the right support, most people find ways to cope and move forward, even if it takes time.

There’s no set amount of time for grief, and no one way it should look. It’s a process you go through as you adjust to life without the person you’ve lost.

What is Traumatic Bereavement?

Sometimes, when a death is especially hard to understand or deal with, it can cause something called traumatic bereavement. This is when the grief feels stuck, and it’s really difficult to move on.

With traumatic bereavement, the way you understand or feel about the death makes the sadness and pain feel even more overwhelming. Instead of feeling a bit better over time, the feelings stay just as strong and may start affecting your everyday life.

Anyone can go through traumatic bereavement, no matter how old you are or how the person died. Certain situations can make this more likely, like:

• If you’ve experienced neglect or abuse
• If there’s violence at home or in your community
• If you’ve lost your birth family
• If you live in poverty or difficult conditions
• If you’ve experienced war or been forced to leave your home
• If you have learning or developmental difficulties

How Can You Tell if You Have Traumatic Bereavement?

It’s completely normal to feel lots of different emotions after someone dies. Grief can feel really tough, but usually, those feelings don’t take over your whole life.

However, if your grief starts making it hard to do normal things—like focusing at school or hanging out with friends—it might be a sign of traumatic bereavement. People around you, like friends, family, or teachers, might notice that you:

• Keep to yourself and don’t spend time with others
• Stop doing things you used to enjoy
• Can’t concentrate in class
• Get really angry or upset for no clear reason
• Feel hopeless, like nothing will ever get better
• Start taking risks, like using drugs, alcohol, or self-harming

If these changes are happening a lot, feel overwhelming, or are very different from how you usually act, it might be a sign that you’re struggling with traumatic bereavement.

It’s important to remember that everyone deals with death in their own way, depending on their family, culture, beliefs, and how old they are.