The loss of someone or something important can shake up anyone’s world. But for teens, grief can also be heightened by their development and surging hormones, making emotions feel more intense.
Grief can sometimes be so intense that it becomes difficult for teens to adjust to everyday life. This can be scary for many parents to witness. To help you better understand complicated grief and the steps you can take to help your teen, this page will help explain:
Complicated grief in teens, now referred to as “prolonged grief disorder,” is a diagnosable mental health condition in which someone’s grief after a loss continues to impact them months later. Prolonged grief disorder in adolescents is when they continue to grieve up to six months after the loss of someone important.[1]
Grieving is a normal response to a loss, and symptoms of grief will likely come and go. But grief becomes prolonged grief disorder when the symptoms are:[1]
It may help to know that unresolved grief in teens is not uncommon. In fact, according to research, between 10.4% and 32% of children and teens experience prolonged grief.[2]
It’s not always easy to know whether your teen’s reaction to a loss has crossed from expected bereavement into something more serious. In order to receive a diagnosis of complicated grief in teens, your child must meet at least three of these complicated grief symptoms:
Your teen might feel as though a part of who they are died with the person they lost. They might struggle to understand who they are without the relationship.
As a result, some teens might struggle with feeling different from everyone else, especially if the loss was of a parent.[3]
Even after time has passed, your teen might still struggle with accepting that the person is gone or have a strong sense that the death doesn’t feel real.
Your teen might refuse to visit certain places, look at photographs, or participate in any activities they shared with the person they lost as a way to avoid reminders.
While avoidance can sometimes give them short-term relief, continually avoiding reminders can make it harder for them to process the loss and can contribute to unresolved grief in teens.[4]
Severe grief in a teenager may result in them struggling to imagine a worthwhile life without the person who died. They might have a harder time:
You might hear them say things like “Nothing matters anymore” without the person they lost.
Complicated grief in teens may involve overwhelming sorrow, anger, bitterness, or other painful emotions that remain closely tied to the death. Persistent grief in adolescents is associated with higher risks of mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially if the death was sudden or violent.[5]
Your teen might feel deeply alone or detached from other people, even when they’re surrounded by supportive friends and family.
When parents describe teen grief not getting better, “better” doesn’t have to mean that their child stops grieving. Instead, consider whether your teen is gradually becoming more capable of carrying and processing their grief while participating in life. If not, then it may be the case that complicated grief is present.
Mission Prep is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
Effective grief treatment for teens doesn’t try to make them forget the person, stop feeling sad, or “move on.” Instead, therapy can help a teenager understand their grief, process what happened, cope with painful emotions, and gradually reconnect with life while staying connected to the person they lost.
Treatment should be based on each teen’s symptoms and circumstances. Some approaches that may be used include:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for complicated grief in teens helps them notice connections between what they think, how they feel, and what they do.
In grief-focused CBT, this might mean working through thoughts such as, If I laugh, I’m betraying them or The death was my fault. The therapist can help your teen examine these beliefs and challenge them by looking at the evidence for and against them.
Research on complicated bereavement in teenagers and children has found that CBT for prolonged grief can reduce:[6]
Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents (TGCT-A) was developed specifically for older children and teens who have experienced trauma or traumatic bereavement.[7]
Rather than following exactly the same treatment plan for every young person, therapists select different components based on your teen’s experiences and needs. Sessions can help teens:
TGCT-A can be provided individually or in a group, making it particularly relevant when grief and trauma symptoms overlap.[7]
Sometimes a death isn’t only painful but traumatic. For instance, your teen might have witnessed the death, discovered the person afterward, or experienced frightening circumstances surrounding it.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents experiencing post-traumatic stress and related difficulties.[8] It combines:
When traumatic stress is preventing your teen from processing their loss, reducing those trauma reactions can make it easier for them to grieve.
You don’t need to find the perfect words to support your teen through complicated grief. Often, being available without trying to fix their grief is more helpful. Some ways to help your teen can include:
Most importantly, take concerning changes seriously. You don’t need to know whether an adolescent bereavement disorder or another mental health diagnosis explains what you’re seeing before contacting a professional. Teen grief counseling can help them get the support they need before it turns into prolonged grief disorder.
Mission Prep provides treatment for teens experiencing various mental health conditions. Mental Health support is a phone call away – call 866-901-4047 to learn about your treatment options.
See our residences in Southern California’s Los Angeles & San Diego areas.
View our facilities in Loudoun County, VA within the DC metro area.
At Mission Prep Teen Treatment, we understand that watching your teen continue to struggle after a death can leave you caught between wanting to give them time and worrying. Our mental health programs focus on the whole person. This comprehensive approach means we start with understanding what your teen is experiencing rather than defining them by their symptoms.
Using evidence-based therapeutic approaches like CBT and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), we can help your teen identify what they’re feeling and process any trauma related to grief. We also combine these approaches with methods like art therapy and somatic therapy to address how grief affects the body and be able to process grief when words aren’t enough.
Finding the approaches that best fit your teen could help them recognize their strengths, develop resilience, and reconnect with goals that make life meaningful again. Whether your teen could benefit from residential treatment at one of our locations, or something more flexible like an outpatient mental health program or virtual telehealth to treat their mental health concerns, our team can help.
Mission Prep Teen Treatment accepts insurance and is in-network with most major providers. We are happy to help you check your insurance coverage for mental health care. Contact us online or call 866-901-4047 to speak with a caring member of our team who can answer any questions you might have. Reach out for a free, no-obligation conversation.
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Grief rarely comes with clear timelines or easy answers, so it’s understandable to have questions about what your teenager is experiencing. Below, we answer a few common questions parents have about prolonged or unresolved grief in teens.
There is no specific timeline for when a teen should stop grieving. It may take your teen months to a year or longer for the grief to ease. Grief is also not linear, so feelings of loss can resurface around birthdays, holidays, graduations, and other important milestones.
More important than the amount of time that’s passed is whether your teen is gradually adapting to the loss and able to participate in everyday life.
Grief is a natural response to loss and doesn’t have a fixed endpoint. Prolonged grief disorder involves persistent longing or preoccupation with the person who died, alongside other symptoms that create significant distress and impairment in daily functioning.
For prolonged grief in teens and children, the death must have occurred at least six months earlier before a provider can diagnose prolonged grief disorder.[1]
Grief and depression can share symptoms, including sadness, sleep problems, difficulty concentrating, and loss of interest. However, they’re not the same condition, though grief can increase the risk of contributing to depression.[3]
Yes, at Mission Prep Teen Treatment, we provide teen grief counseling that can help teens struggling with grief. We provide mental health treatment for teens experiencing a wide range of emotional and psychological concerns, from grief, anxiety, and depression to trauma and suicidal thoughts.
Our team takes into account each teen’s personality, symptoms, current concerns, strengths, and goals when creating a treatment plan. This way, they get the treatment that’s right for them.
Are You Covered for Mental Health Treatment?
We’re in-network with many providers. Call us at 866-901-4047 to verify your benefits and find out how much your plan will cover
Find out if Mission Prep is right for you by reaching out to us and speaking with one of our admissions representatives.
