Table of contents:
- What are the different types of grief
- What is mourning
- Anticipated grief
- Chronic grief
- Absent or delayed grief
- Frozen or inhibited duel
- Unauthorized duel
- Distorted grief
- Ambiguous grief
- Exaggerated or euphoric grief
- Masked duel
- Grief in boys and girls
- Psychiatric grief
Grief is considered as those psychological and social processes that individuals carry out after a loss. Depending on how the loss was, depending on the relationship of the debtor with the deceased and according to the strategies and coping skills that the person has, the grief will have some characteristics or others. Although each duel is different, we can find similar characteristics in duels with similar circumstances. In Psychology-Online we offer you a list of the different types of existing duels, as well as their explanation.
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- Anticipated grief
- Chronic grief
- Absent or delayed grief
- Frozen or inhibited duel
- Unauthorized duel
- Distorted grief
- Ambiguous grief
- Exaggerated or euphoric grief
- Masked duel
- Grief in boys and girls
- Psychiatric grief
What are the different types of grief
In the first instance, we will see the definition of duel according to the Royal Spanish Academy.
What is mourning
As we find in the RAE, this term can have different meanings:
- Pain, pity, grief or feeling.
- Demonstrations that are made to express the feeling that one has for the death of someone.
- Gathering of relatives, friends or guests who attend the mortuary house, the driving of the corpse to the cemetery or funerals.
- There is another sense of mourning, at least in Spanish, which refers to defiance, combat between two, which some authors have wanted to relate to the elaboration of the duel and the challenge that the organization of the personality of the debtor entails.
Next, we leave you a list with the different duels that an individual can experience and that, later, we will define in greater detail. However, it should be noted that any type of grief that does not follow a healthy process, will be known as pathological grief since it causes the person who suffers to develop a pathology.
List of types of duel:
- Anticipated
- Chronic
- Absent or delayed
- Frozen or inhibited
- Unauthorized
- Distorted
- Ambiguous
- Exaggerated or euphoric
- Masked
- In boys and girls
- Psychiatric
Anticipated grief
The person who experiences this type of grief has begun to feel the pain of loss even when it has not taken place as such. The subject is aware that he is going to live this loss in an irremediable way within a short period of time, so he begins to experience all psychological processes in anticipation. It is characteristic in subjects who have relatives with terminal diseases.
Chronic grief
Subjects carry the pain of loss for many years, causing feelings of hopelessness to settle within them. They are characterized by being practically incapable of rebuilding their life, rather, they remain completely anchored in the past. His life revolves around the deceased person.
Absent or delayed grief
The death of the person with whom I know is emotionally linked is denied because of an unfounded hope of return. Subjects with this type of grief often suffer intense clinical symptoms of anxiety, since the evolution of normal grief is stopped in the first phase
Frozen or inhibited duel
Also known by experts as a postponed duel. People who have suffered a loss show no signs of pain or distress during the initial stages of grief. It is considered that the person has seen his emotions blunted, presenting a difficulty to express them and to react to said loss.
Unauthorized duel
This grief is suffered by peers whose babies have died during the perinatal phase. It differs from the rest of the duels in the temporal proximity between birth and death. People who experience this type of grief are usually characterized by behaviors of shock, insensitivity, daze, and difficulties in achieving normal functioning.
Distorted grief
It manifests itself in the individuals who suffer it as a disproportionate reaction to the loss because, normally, it usually occurs when the person has recently experienced a grief and, unfortunately, is facing a new grief situation.
Ambiguous grief
Within this duel, we can find two different manifestations:
- In the first one, the subject is aware that the person is physically absent, but not psychologically. It is characteristic in those cases in which it is not known if the person is alive or dead, but simply disappeared.
- It is certainly the opposite. People consider individuals physically present, but psychologically absent. Considered very common in relatives of elderly people with dementia.
Exaggerated or euphoric grief
This type of grief can be expressed or experienced in three different ways:
- Characterized by an intense reaction to the loss of a loved one.
- Denying the death of the person, so the individual will act as if he or she is still alive.
- Accepting the death of the person, but with the certainty that it has been for the benefit of his person.
Masked duel
Certain symptoms (somatizations) develop in the person who has suffered the loss, which produce difficulties and suffering, however, these are not associated by the person with the loss of the person with whom they had the link.
Grief in boys and girls
This type of grief depends on the age of the minor, since, as a result of this, they will or not have some understanding of the situation they are experiencing.
If they are around two years old, the infant perceives the feeling of separation from the person who has died, however, they do not understand the meaning of death, since they do not have the concept of death as such in their resources.
From the age of four to six, more or less, they begin to develop a limited understanding of death. Many of these consider that a person who has died will be able to come back to life later. At this stage, a child who suffers a grieving process may regress in the control of some behaviors, such as toilet training.
Already between the ages of six and nine they can understand what death is and its consequences. However, we must act with caution because, at this age, feelings of guilt can develop in the least.
Here you can see the symptoms and treatment of pathological grief in children.
Psychiatric grief
This grief develops in the subject true psychiatric disorders which can be:
- Hysterical: the person identifies with the deceased, presenting the same symptoms that led him to death.
- Obsessive: they end up developing a serious and prolonged depression which is based on the guilt that the person feels.
- Manic: alternates pictures of complete psychomotor excitement and explosive mood with depressive pictures.
In the following article you will find more information about Grief processes in the face of significant losses.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Types of grief and their characteristics, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.
Bibliography- Cabodevilla, I. (2007). The losses and their duels. Annals of the Navarra health system (Vol. 30, pp. 163-176). Government of Navarra. Health Department.
- López, IM, Arbelo, CG, & Guisado, MDMS (2016). Grief over perinatal death, an unauthorized grief. Spanish Journal of Health Communication , 7 (2), 300-309.
- Varela López, LL, Reyes Monroy, CA, & García, J. (2017). Types of grief and coping strategies.
- Vargas Solano, RE (2003). Grief and loss. Legal Medicine of Costa Rica , 20 (2), 47-52.