Mental Health & Grief in the US
In an earlier post, I spoke a bit about grief as a mental health diagnosis. I wanted to expand a bit on the positives and negatives associated with "Prolonged Grief Disorder" being added to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) (a tool that provides criteria for mental illness diagnoses) as well as the state of mental health care in our country (in my opinion). Please note that I am one clinician and one person sharing my opinions… these opinions may not generalize to every location or every person. I would love to hear from people with differing experiences, so please reach out if you would like to share.
As a person experiencing such a significant loss, it can feel like something is wrong with us or we are grieving wrong. There is still a great deal of stigma surrounding mental health diagnoses and treatments, although that is improving with the younger generations. People familiar with mental health worry about pathologizing grief - in other words regarding grief as something that is psychologically abnormal or unhealthy. Grief is not unhealthy or abnormal…in fact it is one of the few universal experiences we have as humans. We all will experience grief at some point in our life. Grief, if addressed appropriately, can actually help us to have a better understanding of our feelings, things that may trigger us, and ways to cope with both. Unfortunately, when we experience a loss, we have to grieve. We can grieve today, tomorrow, or in a year - but at some point we have to acknowledge and process our feelings. It is not until we process our feelings that we can find meaningful ways to carry on with our lives and honor our loss. While Prolonged Grief Disorder has very specific criteria (find more info here) most people who do not work in mental health would not readily know the criteria. This limited understanding of the disorder can lead to people having negative feelings regarding grief and can be isolating.
As a clinician, I can understand the benefit to having an official diagnosis and its purpose. By having an official diagnosis, providers have an ICD 10 code that they can use to bill insurances and seek reimbursement for continued services…all of which ultimately does benefit the person grieving. For some people, having an official diagnosis can also be reassuring. In many of our experiences, a diagnosis comes a plan to treat and improve symptoms. Having an official diagnosis of Prolonged Grief Disorder also may help some to feel that they are not alone. If there were enough people meeting the selected criteria to have this diagnosis, there must be others who could understand or empathize with what they are experiencing.
My goal for my lifetime is to see the stigma surrounding grief and mental health in our country continue to lessen. I would hope we feel as comfortable talking about mental health concerns with mental health providers as we do with talking about medical concerns with our primary care physicians. I would love to see mental health screenings become more prominent in preventative care visits such as our annual physicals. Our mental health is just as important as our medical health and we should prioritize it.
Sending love, strength, and support your way,
Ashley