Disenfranchised Grief: What It Means and How to Cope With It

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We grieve when we lose something important to us that we cared about.Grief can be difficult and painful to experience.

Social supportcan play a major role in helping people cope with their grief and accept their loss.According to a 2020 study, having social support in a time of grief can improve well-being and help prevent depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and evensuicide.

But, what happens if a person’s friends, family members, employers, colleagues, or community members don’t acknowledge their grief or consider it to be legitimate? For instance, if someoneloses their dog, people might not understand why they’re grieving as though they’ve lost a child.

This article explores some of the causes of disenfranchised grief, its impact, and some treatment and coping strategies that may be helpful.

9 Types of Grief People May Experience, According to Experts

Instances of Disenfranchised Grief

These are some scenarios where someone’s grief may be disenfranchised:

Unresolved past grief may also be triggered when someone experiences another form of loss, causing their grief response to get reactivated, says May.

What Causes Disenfranchised Grief?

These are some reasons why someone’s grief may be disenfranchised, according to May:

How to Cope at Work When You’re Grieving a Loved One’s Death

Mental Health Impact of Disenfranchised Grief

Angeleena May, LMHC

Treating and Coping With Disenfranchised Grief

Below, May outlines treatment options and coping strategies that can be helpful if you’re experiencing disenfranchised grief.

Perform a Ritual

Rituals, such as a funeral, wake, or retirement party are part of social norms. If your grief is not recognized, attending, hosting, or performing a public ritual may not feel appropriate.

However, it can be helpful to conduct a ritual with people in your life that you can trust and confide in, whether it is an individual, atherapist, or supportive friends.

Rituals performed during the grieving process give you an opportunity to experience and express your grief. Depending on the circumstances, you can opt for a ritual such aswriting a letter, holding a small ceremony, planting a tree of remembrance, or performing any other act that is meaningful to you.

It may also be helpful and healing to perform a ritual from your religious, cultural, or spiritual practice in order to honor and process your disenfranchised grief.

Acknowledge and Process Your Anger

Angeris a natural part of the grieving process, and you may be more prone to feeling angry if you’re experiencing disenfranchised grief. You may push others away or disregard your memories of your loss because of your anger.

Seek Therapy

In addition to struggling with your grief, you may also have difficulty coping with the invalidation of your grief on your own. Therapy can be a useful tool that can help provide the validation and recognition of your grief that you need. It can also help you explore and process your feelings toward the object of your grief.

Therapy can offer a safe emotional space to process feelings of invalidation, loss, and sadness, allowing you to become empowered through your own grieving process.

These are some forms of therapy that can help you cope with disenfranchised grief:

Best Online Grief Support Groups

7 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Nemours Foundation.Death and grief.

MedlinePlus.Grief.

American Psychological Association.Grief: Coping with the loss of your loved one.

Albuquerque S, Teixeira AM, Rocha JC.Covid-19 and disenfranchised grief.Front Psychiatry. 2021;0. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.638874

National Cancer Institute.Grief.

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