Complicated Grief

A healthcare provider will diagnose complicated grief if you experience symptoms of grief that:

• Affect your physical, mental and social health.
• Continue for at least one year after the loss happened for adults and six months for children or adolescents.
• Happen daily for at least the last month before a diagnosis.

Your healthcare provider will look for at least three of the following to confirm a diagnosis:

• You feel as if part of yourself died with your loss.
• You don’t want to accept that the loss happened.
• You avoid reminders of the loss.
• You feel intense emotional pain.
• You’re unable to engage in social activities with your family or friends.
• You don’t experience emotions in the same way you did before the loss or you feel emotionally numb.
• You feel that your life doesn’t have meaning after the loss.
• You feel lonely or detached from other people.