Carrying a lossStep 3 of 8

The caveat this platform will not leave out

One of the two systems asks whether the response exceeds what is expected given a person's social, cultural or religious norms. That clause is doing a great deal of work, and for a Muslim it is worth saying out loud.

Our mourning practices, the way grief is expressed among us, and the ongoing relationship we keep with the dead through supplication and charity on their behalf, are not the same as the samples these instruments were built on.

A continuing bond with someone who has died is normal in Islam. Making dua for your father every night for twenty years is not a symptom of anything. Giving sadaqah in your mother's name is not an inability to let go.

If you see a clinician, say this. A good one will want to know it. What you are looking for is somebody who can tell the difference between a religious practice and a symptom, and if they cannot, they are the wrong clinician and not a verdict on you.

When grief has become something else · Inshirah