Loss, Grief and Loneliness

Abstract

Loss is strongly present in early experience of loneliness. This may be bereavement, but it may also be an experience of parental divorce and separation, of moving into foster care. Sometimes a loss of a feeling of safety and good connection which is the result of violence is accompanied by a loneliness; and the stigma, shame and self-reproach which is associated with becoming a victim of violence is then multiplied in a further stigma associated with loneliness. Using examples of attempted suicide, the trauma of witnessing domestic violence and the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder experienced by a young refugee this chapter’s sub-themes are loss and grief; shame; and social isolation.