“Doing the same puzzle over and over again”: a qualitative analysis of feeling stuck in grief

This research aimed to examine the meanings and constructions underlying
narratives on feeling stuck in the grieving process and the interplay between
grief experience and the internally and externally sourced expectations
about the nature of grief. Four participants who self-referred to a National
Bereavement support charity and reported feeling stuck in grief were
interviewed and the resultant transcripts were analysed using Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Four Master Themes emerged from the analysis: Eclipsed by the deceased;
The power in powerlessness; The double-edged sword of coping behaviours
and Living in Purgatory. The results reveal new insights on the significance
and consequences of living with unresolved dilemmas of grieving, namely
being stuck in a vicious cycle of fear and avoidance and feeling a sense of
impending doom, loneliness and stagnancy.
Findings support a meaning reconstruction approach to grief therapy and
highlight the negative implications of holding a time-limited, stage-based
conceptualistion of grief. Suggestions for service providers are made,
including the potential for using targeted cognitive-behavioral grief
interventions that can help to reduce dissonance and address an over
dependence on avoidance and polarised thinking.