Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Teens and How They Grieve


The Monti-Rago Funeral Home of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, offers not only logistical support for funeral planning but also resources to help clients cope with grief. The Monti-Rago Funeral Home publishes grief education materials for family members of all ages.

Approximately one in every 10 teenagers will experience the death of a significant person before their 18th birthdays, yet adolescent grief is often an invisible issue. Many grieving teens tend to push their feelings away and act as if everything is normal, often because they are feeling pressure to do so from the adults in their lives. They may hear the message that they need to take over the adult role and take care of the family, despite the fact that they are not actually adults and do not have mature emotional coping mechanisms.

This lack of emotional maturity can be particularly difficult when a teen's parent or sibling dies. Adolescents are doing the difficult work of separating emotionally and physically from the family home, and the death of an immediate family member can interrupt this process. Feelings of important emotional work left unfinished is often most intense when the death has been unexpected.

Some teens try to talk these issues out with their friends, but peers are not emotionally ready to provide support for issues this complex. Caring adults must be ready to step up and communicate to the grieving teen that they are there to listen and offer support, whether that be a caring ear or the address of a local grief counseling group.

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