What do we mean by “disenfranchised grief.” It’s when your experience of grief is different than the general cultural attitudes about “justified” pain regarding death and loss or “acceptable” mourning practices. Being out of “the norm” in your grief experience often tend to exacerbate the pain as people can feel very alone.

In this conversation, Candace Opper talks about her experience losing a childhood acquaintance to suicide and how this event stayed with her for decades.