widowers

Bonanno divided his sample of widows and widowers into two groups: people who had complicated grief and people who were asymptomatic.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

George Bonanno has found that not only is it normal for widows and widowers to smile and laugh when describing their relationship to the deceased, but that those who were able to do so six months after the loss were happier and healthier fourteen months out than those who could only speak of the departed with sadness, fear, or anger.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

Although grief counselors almost invariably discourage medication, aside from perhaps some Ambien to help someone sleep or the occasional Xanax, Zisook and others have run small trials using Wellbutrin, Zoloft, and Lexapro on depressed widows and widowers and found significant improvement in depressive symptoms, along with mild improvement in the intensity of grief.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

The emotive approach presented a problem for a lot of bereaved men, however, particularly widowers of a certain generation.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

Why do male widowers get remarried more frequently and more quickly than female widows?

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

In order to figure out the answer, two conditions about the research had to be met: First, the widows and widowers in the sample had to be compared to a control group of married women and men.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

Ray Schmuelling and the other widows and widowers of Young Widow.net graciously allowed me to tag along on their Widowbago weekend.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

Canadian psychologist Tracey Waskowic surveyed seventy-seven widows and widowers ranging in age from forty-one to ninety-seven and found that securely attached people were less angry, less socially isolated, and less prone to guilt, despair, and rumination which in itself is thought to perpetuate depressed moods than insecurely attached people.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

German psychologist Martin Pinquart surveyed over four thousand people aged fifty-three to seventy-nine and found that divorced men and women reported feeling more lonely than widows or widowers.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011

But one study of thirty widows and widowers conducted by the husband-and-wife research team Wolfgang and Margaret Stroebe of Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 1991 found that widows who avoided confronting their loss were not any more depressed than widows who “worked through” their grief.

The Truth About Grief Ruth Davis Konigsberg 2011