The special grief following drug related deaths

Abstract

Background: In most European countries and in the US, there has been a negative trend with increasing incident rates of drug related deaths (DRD) during the last decade. In 2017, the mortality rate due to overdoses reached epidemic proportions in the United States; i.e. the age-adjusted rate of drug overdoses reached 21.7 per 100,000, being 9.6% higher than the 2016 rate. Increasing, still lower, rates are seen in European countries. Behind these figures are many bereaved persons left behind in quiet grief.

Results: Research has shown that other kinds of unnatural deaths (e.g. resulting from accident, suicide, homicide) in particular, can lead to intense suffering and reduce quality of life for those left behind. Still, drug death bereaved persons seem to be an understudied, stigmatized and invisible social group. In this paper, we review previous research and deal with strain and stigmatization before drug related deaths and The Special Grief after such deaths.

Discussion: We will discuss the possibility of different grief reactions as anticipated-, disenfranchized- and Prolonged Grief Disorder among family members and close friends. Furthermore, we focus on how the phenomenology of grief is connected to contextual and personal relations and interpersonal processes. Finally, we discuss the usefulness of a relational dialectics’ perspective and a family perspective for understanding and relating to The Special Grief.

Keywords:

• Drug death
• bereavement
• complicated grief
• special grief

Acknowledgements

A shorter version of the article was originally published in the Danish journal “Psyke & Logos” 2018; 38, 92–109, in Norwegian. The overlapping content has been translated to English and slightly changed with the kind permission of the journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.