| When the American Psychiatric Association updated its manual on mental disorders last month, graduate student Devyn Greenberg noticed that the association was categorizing grief as a disorder when it is "prolonged" beyond one year. Nearly two years ago, she lost her father (and best friend), Garry Greenberg, to covid-19 at age 68. "I think about him every day," Devyn writes in a Post op-ed. "I'm pouring coffee and I hear his laugh; I'm running and I think of something I want to tell him." Grief books, support groups and other efforts to find solace had counseled that it is okay to feel the pain of loss, she writes. One therapist suggested that grief only starts after a year. Anyone who has lost an immediate family member knows that mourning them is not a straightforward, five-stage experience. "No, grief is more akin to bushwhacking through a gnarly forest," Greenberg writes. "Each of us needs validation that we can cry out from the thorns in our sides." The association's decision has potentially far-reaching implications, she writes. "I worry for others who have loved and lost — at some point, all of us. I worry that this framing will render us even lonelier in our pain, even more convinced that our nonlinear, unpredictable paths through loss are 'wrong.'" We're making this article free for Opinions A.M. readers. To access everything we publish, please consider becoming a subscriber.  (Family photo) The American Psychiatric Association's categorization of "prolonged" grief as a disorder pathologizes a normal, necessary process. Audio Article ● By Devyn Greenberg ● Read more » | | | | Here are all the things Truth Social taught me. By Dana Milbank ● Read more » | | | | The forecast is more division followed by a storm of craziness. By David Von Drehle ● Read more » | | | | What, exactly, is the problem with Virginia Thomas's mad-as-hatter politics? Appearances, apparently. By George F. Will ● Read more » | | | | Read the truth, before it is overturned. By Ruth Marcus ● Read more » | | | The old guardrails against despots and madmen are slipping away. By Matt Bai ● Read more » | | | | Both sides have described the same basic terms, but many will flinch at an outcome that seems to reward Vladimir Putin's brutal aggression. By David Ignatius ● Read more » | | | | Remember this rule about fraudulent ballots. By Benjamin L. Ginsberg, Bob Bauer and David Becker ● Read more » | | | | Going "up the ladder" takes time. By Randall D. Eliason ● Read more » | | | | The naiveté on the Russian threat is palpable. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | | Prioritizing long-term ideals over immediate needs threatens to leave too many people out in the actual cold. By Helaine Olen ● Read more » | | | |
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