ABSTRACT
The majority of what is written about living with chronic sorrow can be found in nontechnical writings and retrospective studies, such as personal narratives, plays, movies, novels, and fictionalized accounts based on actual cases. Data-based research is usually short-term and "single-shot," focused on quantifiable and discrete responses. A general agreement exists that for those who are coping with chronic sorrow, there are predictable times of increased stress and exacerbation of grief responses. For parents of children with developmental disabilities, five of these stress points relate to developmental milestones, the ages when milestones should occur if the child were normal. These stress points are: walking, talking, going to school, the onset of puberty, and the child's 21st birthday. The five additional stress points are uniquely associated with parenting a child having significant impairments. Stress points and the distressful resurgence of grief they engender are endemic to chronic sorrow.
