Dear Dr. Neimeyer, How do I forgive the person who dumped my first-born son unconscious out of his car and left him to die? I lost my son almost three years ago; someone left him unconscious and he died in an empty parking lot alone. He was an organ donor and saved five different lives.
Making time to grieve
Dr. Neimeyer, While grieving of a dear one is very personal, how would you suggest to stop my friends who keep doing different things to interrupt me during the time that I want to be stay alone? As obvious as it is, I need my time to feel sad, my time to internalize being left
Complicated and consuming grief of a friend
Dear Dr. Neimeyer I have read and appreciate your work about meaning reconstruction in loss. I have a friend whose grief is so complicated and consuming that she can’t find life for herself (her husband died from cancer about six years ago) and she can’t seem to move forward at all. Here is an excerpt
I Lost My Older Brother… Grieving and Depression
Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I lost my older brother just a few weeks ago. I feel so sad and depressed. Plus I have major depression and an anxiety disorder, panic disorder too. Could losing my brother make me have lapse back into a deep depression again? -Phoebe Dear Phoebe, The short answer to your question is “Yes,
A Wife’s Suicide
Dear Dr. Neimeyer, My wife took her own life a few months ago, and it has busted me wide open. I’m better than where I was but far from being better. I wrestle with the coulda, shoulda, woulda of survivor guilt and anger. I miss her terribly, and now have somewhat come to terms that this
Five Principles for Managing Grief in the New Year
EDITOR’S NOTE: WE THOUGHT THIS WAS WORTH REPEATING AS THE NEW YEAR LOOMS Dear Dr. Neimeyer– My husband died just over a year ago, so on January 1st I will start my second year without him, and I am not looking forward to it. It’s not that I am immobilized by grief, as I have
Grieving a wife’s death from cancer
Dear Dr. Neimeyer, My wife passed away on last month from cancer. We knew it was going to happen someday but we were utterly floored by the speed with which she went downhill. I know she is in a beautiful place with the Lord. I am trying very hard to deal with the emotions from
Anticipatory Grieving and Parents: somatic symptom disorders
Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I’m a physician and psychiatrist, and I have a question for you given your decades of work in both the theory and clinical practice around grief/bereavement. I am trained as a pediatrician, and also as an adult + child/adolescent psychiatrist. I now work as a psychiatrist, embedded with the pediatric palliative care
Five Principles for Managing Grief in the New Year
Dear Dr. Neimeyer– My husband died just over a year ago, so on January 1st I will start my second year without him, and I am not looking forward to it. It’s not that I am immobilized by grief, as I have gotten better across the months in that department, and actually feel pretty good
My husband passed away…
Dear Dr. Neimeyer, My husband passed away in five years ago. It was right before our oldest son graduated from high school and our youngest son was eight. My oldest son graduated with a degree in electrical engineering last year. My oldest son, I believe bottled up everything; he won’t even talk to me or his