Diagnosing complicated mourning

Question 1

The person being interviewed cannot speak of the deceased without experiencing intense and fresh grief.

Answer 1

Clue 1

Question 2

Some relatively minor event triggers an intense grief reaction.

Answer 2

Clue 2

Question 3

Themes of loss come up in a clinical interview

Answer 3

Clue 3

Question 4

The person who has sustained the loss is unwilling to move material possessions belonging to the deceased.

• must factor in cultural and religious differences
• tossing everything that belonged to the deceased right after the death is also a clue.

Answer 4

Clue 4

Question 5

An examination of a person’s medical records reveals that he or she has developed physical symptoms like those the deceased experienced before death.

Answer 5

Clue 5

Question 6

Those who make radical changes to their lifestyle following a death or who exclude from their life friends, family members, and/or activities associated with the deceased may be revealing unresolved grief.

Answer 6

Clue 6

Question 7

A patient presents a long history of subclinical depression, often marked by persistent guilt and lowered self-esteem. The opposite may also be true, the person who experiences a false euphoria subsequent of a death my be experiencing unresolved grief.

Answer 7

Clue 7

Question 8

A compulsion to imitate the dead person, particularly if the client has no conscious desire or competence for the same behavior, comes from the individual’s need to compensate for the loss by identifying with the deceased.

Answer 8

Clue 8

Question 9

Self-destructive impulses

Answer 9

Clue 9

Question 10

Unaccountable sadness occurring at a certain time each year.

Answer 10

Clue 10

Question 11

A phobia about illness or about death is often related to the specific illness that took the deceased.

Answer 11

Clue 11

Question 12

A knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the death can help the therapist determine the possibility of unresolved grief.

Answer 12

Clue 12