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461 points LaurenSerino | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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graemep ◴[] No.45290469[source]
There is a problem with rigid medical definitions. There is a huge difference between the author of this, a young pregnant woman losing her husband, and say, something like a middle aged person losing an elderly parent (as I did earlier this year). Of course it will take her far longer to recover (if at all).

I would guess her grief is not "disordered" though. As she says she functions - she works, she looks after her child, she looks after herself.

> We medicalize grief because we fear it.

Absolutely right. There is a certain cowardice in how we deal with death in the contemporary west.

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1. minitoar ◴[] No.45290773[source]
I think it’s medicalized because often this set of symptoms is associated with inability to function and it can be treated medically with eg therapy.