The Grieving Teen

With the teenage years there are many changes and responsibilities. Teens have new roles at school and home. Teens have their driver’s license, part time jobs and school activities. Because of these changes, the death of a significant person is different for a teen than the experience for a child or an adult. It becomes more complicated with issues surrounding a teen’s experience with death, the relationship of this person with the teen, the relationship and changes with others after the death, and the changes that this death has to their daily life.

Teens don’t wear their grief for everyone to see. They keep their grief hidden. When a teen experiences the death of a significant person, he or she is grieving whether you can see it or not. Grief is unique to everyone so adults may find it difficult to understand and therefore don’t acknowledge the grief that their teen is experiencing.

Grief is a natural reaction to a death.
Each teen’s experience is unique.
There is no “right” or “wrong” way to grieve.
Every death is unique and is experienced differently.
Grief never ends but it does change.