9781422270196

As teens and young adults move past their most challenging emotions, they begin to look for a sense of belonging and learn to live without their loved one. For example, if one parent has passed, then the teens or young adults will be facing a different relationship with the living parent and with extended family members like grandparents, aunts, and uncles. After teens experience loss, their relationships with their friends will also change, and it takes time for those relationships to settle into this new reality. Finally, a healthily grieving teen will accept the loss and train his or her brain not to expect the lost loved one to be in their usual place. Instead, you can set aside a place, object, or time to remember and talk about your loss when it doesn’t impact daily activities like school and work. Teens and young adults often express a need to “maintain a connection with their loved one who died,” perhaps by remembering private thoughts, talking about their feelings and their missing loved one, or holding on to an object, like a piece of jewelry, that reminds them of their loved one. 2 Teens who are grieving, along with their support network of friends and family, should remember that the process of grief and recovery is not a step-by-step timeline. It is a messy, maze-like process in which some days will feel like successes and others will be emotional struggles. The goal is for the overall trend to show improvement in emotional stability and to demonstrate the ability to rejoin and function in regular daily life. Grief is Normal The waves of emotions that accompany grief and loss can feel overwhelming for teens and young adults who are already experiencing life changes. These drastic emotional swings may make teenagers doubt whether they are experiencing grief properly or expressing their grief in the right way. The answer to that question is yes. Grief is normal. Crying is normal. Wanting to

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Chapter 1: What is Grief?