Grief and Bereavement Losing someone special, whether it is a
family member, friend or pet, is a very traumatic experience for
a child/adolescent. Sometimes loss is not about death but rather
about someone special going away or leaving the family unit.
Although grief is a normal, healthy process that people go
through, children experience grief in very different ways than
adolescents do and very different ways than adults do. What
makes it more complicated is that no one person deals with loss
in the same way. Having someone that is skilled at working with
children and adolescents who have experienced loss can be a very
beneficial way to help the child/adolescent integrate the
loss/change in a healthy and adaptive way. Some common symptoms
of grief that children/adolescents may experience include: -
Feelings of sadness or anxiety - Feelings of anger and confusion
- Changes in appetite or sleep - Difficulty managing emotion
(irritability, acting out, withdrawing, isolating) - Feelings of
guilt - Extreme fear o