The special grief following drug death bereavement

Abstract

Grief, following death, is something people experience and have had to tackle throughout time. Precisely why it is so common or “normal” that unhealthy and complex forms of grief have been relatively neglected in the health services. Trajectories of grief vary strongly for individuals, and for some people, the loss of a close person is experienced as one of life’s most stressful events. Research in recent years has shown that unnatural deaths, in particular (for example, resulting from accident, suicide or overdose) can
lead to intense suffering and reduce quality of life (complicated grief) over time. This article focuses on the grief of drug death bereaved, an understudied, stigmatised and invisible social group. We discuss the potential for a form of grief in close persons who have feared and struggled to prevent death by overdose. When the death occurs, they can experience that their grief goes unrecognised by society, amongst their own relief, shame, guilt and guilt for feeling relieved. Furthermore, we discuss how the phenomenology of grief is connected to contextual and personal relations and interpersonal processes. Finally, we discuss the contributing factors and the likelihood of a particular form of complicated grief in drug death related bereaved.