health psychology region north america society

"Complicated grief" is a new medical condition affecting one million Americans

By John Hockenberry, Adaora Udoji, Jonathan Topaz

Thursday, August 7 2008

Get over it! The old adage reinforces the commonly-held belief that grief is a controllable social condition. However, scientists believe "complicated grief," a physical condition that affects a distinct part of the brain, could be affecting about one million Americans.

Guest: Mary-Frances O’Connor, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, and Virginia “Ginny” Eskridge, diagnosed with complicated grief.
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I am 7.5 years into grieving the loss of my husband. I do all the "right" things to move on. Nothing sticks. The hole still hurts, a lot. I see and feel him. Help is where?

Posted by Mary, 9:10 a.m. Thursday, August 7 2008 Permalink

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I have experienced intense grief when I lost my lifelong best friend. I have never been a depressed person, always been able to "get over" things. But grief. Wow. It does feel like something physical happened to me. Physical pain, no energy, and anyyone else's grief triggers my own all over again. Its been two years. I also have a friend whose husband died 3 years ago. She was 53 and died almost to the day of the 3rd anniversary of his death. She was just never the same. Nothing really wrong with her. Probably didn't eat enough, sleep enough, drank too much, smoked too much. But she just died. They found no reason in her autopsy. That is when I realized what it means to die of a broken heart. Grief is an ass kicker.

Posted by Jen, 9:12 a.m. Thursday, August 7 2008 Permalink

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Grief is difficult. It seems like you do "move on" but always feel a weight and loss too.

Posted by jason, 9:11 a.m. Friday, August 8 2008 Permalink

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