Although all grief can be difficult and complex, not all grief is prolonged grief or complicated grief. Learning how to recognize when your grief has become “stuck” is an important first step in moving forward. If you can gain a better understanding of your experience, it can be a relief and also give you a way to talk with your friends and family about what is happening for you.

A next step might be to find an experienced therapist who can support you as you learn about constructive and helpful ways to grieve. Healing from your loss doesn’t mean letting go of the person who died or moving on from grief. Instead, it means learning from and living with loss and grief in a way that both rebuilds our connection with those who’ve died while also helping us to rebuild our lives without them.