Saturated Loss occurs when losses stack faster than they can be metabolized. Dissolution is both a result of saturation and a generator of further loss. How Dissolution Saturates the System Loss of belief → loss of community Loss of identity → loss of direction Loss of meaning → loss of motivation Loss of trust → loss of relational safety Each loss erodes the capacity to grieve the next. Clinical Marker of Saturation in Dissolution “Everything feels broken” “I don’t know wher

The Medical Naming of Death (Including Disability, Disease, and Damage) Within the Ds of Death framework, Diagnosis is not information. It is a declaration of loss. Diagnosis marks the moment when medicine names an ending—of bodily continuity, assumed futures, identity, and agency—while the person remains alive. It is the point at which ambiguity collapses and consequence becomes unavoidable. Disability, disease, and damage are not separate deaths within this framework. They

Grieving the loss of autonomy, identity, and relationship Dependency in addiction creates multiple, overlapping losses: The loss of self-governance for the person using The loss of mutuality for those who care The loss of predictability, safety, and future orientation for systems Because these losses are ongoing and stigmatized, they often remain unmourned, trapping people in cycles of shame, control, and despair. Mapping dependency to the 6 Needs of Mourning allows grief to

The loss of place, belonging, and continuity Displacement grief arises when a person is separated from where they belong—their home, land, culture, community, or sense of rootedness. Unlike a single, visible death, displacement is a layered loss: of safety, familiarity, identity, and future orientation. It can occur through war, migration, eviction, colonialism, climate disaster, gentrification, institutionalization, incarceration, foster care, hospitalization, or professiona

Applying a mourning framework to the loss of place, home, and belonging Displacement is not a single loss—it is a compound grief that touches identity, safety, continuity, and future. Applying the 6 Needs of Mourning helps make visible what is often silenced or misnamed as “adjustment” or “transition.” Below, each need is translated specifically for displacement grief—what it asks of the mourner, how it commonly gets blocked, and what support looks like in practice. Acknowled

The loss of a baby during childbirth is a singular kind of grief—sudden, embodied, and profoundly disorienting. It occurs at the precise moment when life was meant to arrive, when the body, the room, and the future were oriented toward welcome. Instead, parents are met with silence, finality, and a rupture that is both physical and existential. Below is an exploration of that loss—its weight, its emotional terrain, and the mindset it often creates—without trying to tidy it, e

(Temporary authority, permanent impact) A babysitter occupies a uniquely vulnerable role in disappearance. They are entrusted with care but do not own the role of protector in the way parents do—yet the burden lands heavily, often without social recognition or long-term support. Core Mindset “I was responsible—but not entitled.” Babysitters often internalize responsibility for the outcome while being excluded from: Decision-making afterward Ongoing information Grief rituals N

A Collision of Values, Identity, and Existential Threat Moral Injury: A Wound to Meaning, Not Just Memory Moral injury is not fear-based trauma. It is value-based trauma. It occurs when an individual: Perpetrates, witnesses, or is unable to prevent actions that violate deeply held moral beliefs Or is betrayed by authority, leadership, or institutions they trusted to uphold those values For service members, moral injury often emerges from: Orders that conflict with conscience

Below is a clinical–narrative exploration of the grief experienced by a service member whose career ends prematurely through a dishonourable discharge, particularly when the departure is unwanted, contested, or perceived as unjust. This framing treats the event not as a single loss, but as a cascade of deaths—identity, meaning, belonging, future-self—occurring simultaneously. The Death of a Chosen Identity For many service members, the role is not a job—it is a chosen self. S

(Shared attachment, unequal power) Siblings experience disappearance through a profoundly unjust frame: they are emotionally invested but structurally powerless. Core Mindset “I was there—but I couldn’t stop it.” Especially when the sibling was older, or “in charge” informally, disappearance creates a lifelong sense of failure: I was supposed to protect them. I was the last one who saw them. I should have fought harder. For younger siblings, the mindset may be: “If they can d

Below is a clinical–narrative exploration of the burden carried by caregivers when a child disappears, with particular attention to mindset and emotional responses. This is written to be usable both as reflective material and as a foundation for therapeutic or psycho-educational work. When a child disappears, the caregiver does not simply lose a child—they lose orientation, authority, and certainty all at once. Caregiving is an identity structured around protection, predictio

Below is a structured, trauma-informed exploration that centers the impact  of parental authority overriding a child’s lived experience—especially when parents unilaterally define what is “toxic” and label their own behaviour as “good parenting,” regardless of how it is received. The Power to Define Reality When parents decide what  is toxic without the child’s participation, they are not just setting boundaries—they are claiming ownership over reality. This often shows up as

A returning parent is often imagined as a repair. In reality, their return frequently r eactivates grief rather than resolving it. Desertion fractures time: there is the before , the absence , and the after . When the parent reappears, the family is asked to stitch together lives that have already been rebuilt in their absence. The return does not undo the leaving. It introduces a new loss—the loss of the story the family had finally learned to survive with. The Grief of Retu

When a family is abandoned, the loss has no ceremony and no closure. Desertion is a rupture without acknowledgment. There is no shared decision, no final goodbye, no clear ending—only absence. Becoming a single parent through abandonment is not just the loss of a partner; it is the collapse of trust, safety, and shared responsibility all at once. The parent left behind must grieve while carrying the shock of betrayal and the burden of survival. This form of grief is often mis

The loss of a parent is not a single event. It is a fracture that travels through time, reshaping memory, identity, and relationships. Whether the death comes slowly or suddenly, by illness or by accident, the death of a parent rearranges the inner world of a child—no matter that child’s age. Slow Death: The Long Goodbye When a parent dies slowly—through illness, degeneration, or prolonged decline—grief begins long before death. This is anticipatory grief. The child grieves i

Estrangement and abandonment often leave behind a very specific wound: the experience of being unseen, unheard, and ignored. This is not just loneliness. It is an erosion of existence-as-recognized . Below is a structured exploration of how this happens, what it does to a person, and why it cuts so deeply. 1. Estrangement as Social Erasure Estrangement doesn’t merely remove a relationship; it removes witnesses. To be seen is to have one’s inner world acknowledged. To be heard

A life-threatening or life-changing diagnosis is not a single loss. It is a cascade  of losses that unfold over time—some immediate, some delayed, some invisible to everyone but the person carrying the body that has changed. Below is an exploration of that grief, its emotions, and its impact. The First Loss: The Assumption of Tomorrow Before the diagnosis, there is often an unspoken belief: My body will carry me forward. A diagnosis fractures that assumption. Suddenly, the fu

Divorce with children is not a single loss. It is a layered grief—quiet, ongoing, and relational—because the people you love most are grieving alongside  you, and often because  of decisions you had to make. Below is an exploration of that grief, not as a timeline to “get through,” but as a lived terrain that both parents and children move through differently, unevenly, and repeatedly. 1. The Death of the Family You Imagined For parents, divorce is often the loss of a future

Children experience divorce not as a legal or relational change—but as a disruption to safety, meaning, and continuity. Loss of the World as It Was Children grieve: routines physical spaces daily access to both parents Even when conflict decreases, the loss remains real. Children often ask silently: “If my family can change this much, what else isn’t safe?” This grief is often nonverbal, expressed through: behavior changes regression withdrawal anger perfectionism Split Loyal

(What must be actively tended to heal) Unlike stages, these needs are non-linear and often revisited. Acknowledge the Reality of the Loss Divorce is often socially minimized: “At least no one died.” But something did die: A shared future A chosen identity A belief in permanence Acknowledgment means naming divorce as a legitimate bereavement, not a personal failure. Feel the Pain of the Loss Many divorcees intellectualize grief to survive. Feeling s may include: Shame for “fa