ABSTRACT
The psychological pain and stress of chronic sorrow and the need to achieve some kind of accommodation can lead to deeply troubling existential conflicts and turmoil. Existential issues can become intrusively foreground. For some, the work of making sense of a loss and of integrating it is a lifelong endeavor. In those coping with chronic sorrow, prior existential adjustments become stressed and sometimes fractured. T. Rando has described existential turmoil following significant loss as a major secondary loss. The nature and intensity of disillusionment are considerably more problematic in chronic sorrow. Disillusionment can spread to nearly all of life and is sometimes only a step away from despair. Ultimate and essential aloneness may be the most painful of our existential realizations. The nature of the loss itself may lead to reduction of opportunities to temper the sense of isolation and aloneness that accompany debilitating conditions.
