Bereavement models
Models of bereavement attempt to explain the experiences of people who have been bereaved and the process of grieving. Different people find different models helpful and relevant to their own experiences. You can read more about these models here.
Bereavement models
Differing models have been developed by people working in the field to describe a common core of experience for people who’ve been bereaved. All models are descriptive rather than proscriptive – though they may be useful as tools to think about grief you shouldn’t feel they can accurately tell you what you will feel next. Different people find different models useful – have a look at the ones below and see which ones you find useful. The Dual Process Model (Margaret Stroebe & Henk Schut, 1995)
More devastating than I could ever have imagined
Our son, Matthew, died in April 2001 from a heroin overdose. He was thirty years old. He was the middle one of three boys and he had begun experimenting with drugs and alcohol probably in his early teens. His behaviour changed drastically then, but it can be hard to know the difference between "normal" teenage behaviour and drug use. And he was the last child one would imagine to try drugs – he loved sport, had lots of friends, detested people smoking and knew about the dangers.
