When grief doesn’t ease with time.

What “complicated” or “prolonged” grief means

There’s no single right speed for grief, and the hardest weeks are often not the first ones. But for some people the intensity doesn’t loosen its grip the way it usually does — months or more than a year on, the yearning, the disbelief, the ache of it are still running the show, still crowding out the rest of life. Clinicians have a name for grief that stays this intense and disruptive for a long stretch — some call it complicated grief, and more recently it’s been recognized as prolonged grief. The name matters less than the experience: grief that isn’t easing, and that’s making it genuinely hard to function.

What it can look like

It’s different for everyone, but people often describe some of these: a constant pull toward the person who died, or toward avoiding every reminder of them; feeling like part of you is gone, or that life has lost its meaning; trouble accepting the loss even when you know it’s real; intense emotional pain that doesn’t let up; feeling cut off from other people, or numb. If several of these have stayed with you long after the loss, it’s worth talking to someone.

Who this is for

This page is for adults whose grief has stayed intense and stuck — whether the loss was months ago or years ago, whether it was sudden or long expected. You don’t need a diagnosis, a label, or a certain number of symptoms to reach out. If your grief is still running your days and you’re wondering whether it’s supposed to feel this hard for this long, that question is reason enough to start a conversation.

If it’s a child in your family whose grief you’re worried about rather than your own, that work looks different — our page on grief play therapy for children walks through how kids process loss.