If grief after someone's death continues to make life deeply difficult, you can ask for help without judging your bond or proving that enough time has passed. Learn how assessment considers your experiences and context.
Support is available without a diagnosis or a deadline for grief.
01 / Get a clearer picture
Persistent difficulty deserves care, without judging your grief.
Grief after a death is personal. Prolonged grief disorder is a clinical description of an enduring, intense grief response with significant distress or impairment beyond what is expected in the person's social, cultural or religious context.
Strong feelings or anniversaries alone do not establish a disorder. Remembering someone and maintaining a meaningful connection are not failures to recover.
Support is available without a diagnosis or a deadline for grief.
A visual explanation
Context matters more than a calendar alone.
Your experience
Feelings and difficulties over time
Everyday impact
What you need help with
Your context
Personal, cultural and religious meaning
Support choices
Clinical, practical or bereavement care
Assessment areas that belong together. This is not a sequence of grief stages or a measure of how much you loved someone. Source: American Psychiatric Association
A closer look
Support can leave room for your connection with the person who died.
Grief varies between people and can change from one day to another. Prolonged grief disorder is a clinical term for a persistent, distressing pattern after a death that substantially affects daily life, considered in its cultural and personal context.
The question is not whether you still love or miss someone, or whether you have completed a set of stages. The needs around grief can be emotional, practical and relational at the same time.
Connection
What space do you want for memories, rituals or speaking about the person?
Daily living
Which ordinary tasks or responsibilities feel difficult to manage?
Support
Who can listen or help in a way that fits your wishes and circumstances?
Needs around grief, not stages or a countdown. You do not have to identify with every area.
Remembering someone and asking for help with everyday life can belong in the same space.
A closer look
Diagnostic timing is not a timetable for your feelings.
The adult DSM-5-TR framework uses a minimum of twelve months after a death. ICD-11 uses a minimum of six months, alongside its wider requirements. These frameworks are distinct; IGQ was developed for ICD-11.
Neither duration alone nor recent grief establishes prolonged grief disorder. Support can begin earlier. There are no mandatory stages, score target or deadline for moving on.
There is no required way to spend an anniversary or an ordinary day.
In a fictional example, Devon wants to keep a meaningful tradition but finds everyday responsibilities increasingly hard. Devon would like help with the distress without being told to put away reminders or move on.
Someone else might want less conversation or a different form of support. The example illustrates a possible care request; it does not establish a diagnosis or a standard for how grief should look.
Fictional examples to explain an experience. They are not a checklist or a diagnosis.
What to keep
“This tradition matters to me.”
What is difficult
“I am struggling to manage daily responsibilities.”
Assessment considers the death, experiences over time, everyday impact and cultural or religious expectations. A professional also explores other difficulties, such as depression or trauma-related symptoms.
A questionnaire may support that conversation. It cannot decide whether your bond was too close or establish a diagnosis from time since the death alone.
Diagnostic frameworks have timing requirements alongside symptom, functioning and context requirements. The adult DSM-5-TR minimum described by APA is twelve months after a death; meeting a time requirement alone does not mean that someone has a disorder. Other frameworks differ, as the existing timing section explains.
A professional should consider culture, circumstances, distress and other difficulties, including depression or trauma-related concerns where relevant. You can ask for help before any diagnostic time requirement is met.
Context
“What traditions, circumstances or responsibilities should you understand?”
Impact
“Which parts of daily life have become unmanageable?”
Care
“What support is appropriate even if this label does not apply?”
Grief-focused psychological treatment can help with persistent difficulties. Discuss the approach and your goals with a clinician, including any other health needs.
Support in your daily life
Bereavement or peer support can offer connection without requiring a diagnosis. You may also want practical help with daily responsibilities. Choose what you feel able to explore.
Understand your options
Care can address persistent difficulty without erasing the loss.
Grief-focused psychological approaches can help with persistent distress and difficulties adapting to life after a death. A professional can explain the approach and whether it fits your needs. Support groups or bereavement support may provide a different kind of help and connection.
Ask how the work will respect your relationship with the person who died, what sessions involve and how other health concerns will be addressed. This page does not ask you to write a letter, relive a death or complete a grief exercise.
A practical offer can be more useful than a deadline.
A supporter might offer help with one responsibility, company for an appointment or a chance to talk if wanted. Ask rather than assuming that distraction or a detailed conversation is always welcome.
You can say what kind of contact feels manageable and change your mind later. If you feel unsafe or unable to cope, use the support routes on this page; a diagnosis is not needed to ask for urgent help.
Find questions to ask about a psychological approach.
05 / Choose your next step
A little clarity. A place to start.
Explore a tool, prepare a conversation or find someone to talk to. Choose what feels useful to you.
Questionnaires you might hear about
IGQ is an ICD-11 research screening reference. It is not a test of your love, a required step before support or a way to classify a recent loss.
IGQ
Explore an ICD-11 grief symptom and context profile.
International Grief Questionnaire
The original adult self-report research version considers symptoms alongside bereavement timing, everyday impairment and cultural expectations. Clinical-check and caregiver versions are separate.
What it can and cannot tell you
The owner now states that IGQ versions are freely available for use, but the current exact English form, digital terms, version differences and clinical interpretation still need review here. A symptom sum is not a diagnosis, and IGQ is not a DSM-5-TR algorithm.
You can contact a clinician or bereavement service and explain what has become hard. Ask about support, assessment and what a first conversation involves. You do not need to wait for a diagnostic time requirement.
Does still missing someone mean I have a disorder?
No. Continuing to miss someone or maintain a connection does not by itself establish a diagnosis. Clinical assessment considers the wider pattern, distress, daily impact and cultural context.
No required stage sequence describes everyone's experience. Feelings can vary and return, and you do not have to complete stages to qualify for support.
The aim is to address persistent distress and difficulties in living after the death. Ask how an approach makes room for your connection and your priorities, rather than assuming that care requires forgetting.
Topics can overlap. These links are for reading, not a suggestion that you have another condition.
Where this information comes from.
Use this hub to learn and prepare questions. It does not diagnose you or recommend a personal treatment plan. By Selfmora editorial; sources checked . Updated .
Additional explanations and examples: sources consulted . Examples illustrate ideas; they do not assess your personal health. Your questions
