Traumatic Grief

Depending on the type of traumatic event, it can be much more difficult to recuperate. For instance, getting over damage to your house caused by fire is much easier than coping with the loss of a loved one in military combat.

Traumatic grief normally results when:

Death is sudden and unexpected (e.g., relative dies of natural causes without any prior signs of sickness or disease.
Death is sadistic, disfiguring, or destructive, especially when the fatality is due to another's negligent behavior (e.g., car accident, homicide, suicide, etc.).
Death is assumed to have been arbitrary and/or avoidable.
An incident involves several deaths.
Death also serves as the mourner's own personal encounter with death (e.g., witnessing the death happen firsthand).

A traumatic death leaves the mourner much more prone to suffering from ensuing complicated mourning. Complicated mourning is a part of the mourning process in which the grieving person is still unable to fully adapt to loss or failure.

A recovery process that involves traumatic grief is complicated and intensely demanding--much more than a typical response required to assist the mourner as they cope with loss and its foreseeable setbacks. Someone suffering from traumatic grief should seek out professional counseling to help them address their pain and develop a plan to get over the hump on the road to recovery.

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