Recent Stories
Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I work on an oncology unit in a large metropolitan hospital as a senior nurse, supervising several RNs and nursing assistants who care for many seriously ill patients. Although most of the care we provide supports their recovery, we also lose many patients each week, some of whom are offered palliative care […]
Continue ReadingDear Dr. Neimeyer, My question is related to the bulk of my role as a hospice bereavement coordinator, which is to reach out via telephone to identified bereaved family members of our hospice patients after the patient has passed. The bereavement model employed is a “clean break” model, meaning the team that cared for the family prior […]
Continue ReadingDear Dr. Neimeyer, My only child, my 16 year old daughter, took her own life just one month ago. She showed no signs at all. Straight A student, worked as cashier part time, saving money for college. She just finished her College Boards and got an amazing score. I know this wasn’t planned–she had placed orders […]
Continue ReadingDear Dr. Neimeyer, I’m a family therapist who has been working with a couple who have lost a young adult son in a drowning accident in a distant country, and in which the mother has remained in a deep, unshakeable grief for over three years, for two of which I have been working with her and her […]
Continue ReadingDear Dr. Neimeyer, I’ve lost all my parents and siblings. Each one I’ve grieved and tried to move on, but now that I’ve lost my last remaining family member, my sister, five weeks ago, why do I feel like I’m grieving for them all now? I’ve never felt so lost and alone now that I’ve lost […]
Continue ReadingDear Dr. Neimeyer, Your recent reply to the woman widowed over 25 years ago resonated with me, even though my husband is still alive. I am a member of the Well Spouse Association, a national nonprofit organization which provides peer support to those caring for chronically ill or disabled spouses. “Chronic sorrow”…”bleaching out of emotions”…”surviving but not thriving”… “sense of not fitting […]
Continue ReadingI lost my young wife after twenty years of marriage. Since then I feel like I’ve moved on; I found a new wife whom I love completely. We’ve raised terrific children. My problem is that I have an irrational fear of loss. At least once a day I obsess about losing my new wife, our […]
Continue ReadingDr. Neimeyer, Last week, my friend’s 16 year old daughter committed suicide. As far as what is known, there is nothing that indicates the “why”. As I read through your materials, I have learned that we try to bring an understanding to the un-understandable and it eats at us. He and his ex-wife divorced a […]
Continue ReadingDear Dr. Neimeyer, I was recently in a deadly car accident that took the lives of my two beautiful, funny, and loving baby girls, ages 6 and 8. The accident also resulted in my surviving teenage year old daughter being a paraplegic, and my husband having a TBI, and several fractures in his face, arm, leg […]
Continue ReadingDear Dr. Neimeyer, I’ve heard that exercise can make a big difference for people who are suffering grief after a loved one dies. Is that really true? I know exercise is good for you in general, but how does it help when you are broken hearted after the death of someone who meant the world […]
Continue Reading