Subscribe to our newsletter. The intensity of the grief depends upon how the loss is perceived. Where the loss is not considered significant, the person suffering that loss may barely feel any grief at all. Where the loss is considered significant by the person experiencing, the grief reaction will be stronger no matter how others might perceive that loss. If the grief reaction from significant losses remain unresolved for a long period of time, the person who has suffered the loss can can suffer mental, physical and sociological problems.
Unresolved grief can contribute to family dysfunction for many years.
In a home where there is child abuse or domestic violence, a survivor has no opportunity to grieve and heal from one trauma before being confronted by the next trauma. Even is the overt abuse stops, the neglect and other family dysfunction is unlikely to end overnight. The survivor of child abuse is rarely in an environment that is comforting, nurturing and supportive of the healing process. A second complication is a lack of acknowledgment by the survivor or society that he or she has the right to grieve and needs to heal. The wounds of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault are often invisible to others.