Loss and grief
Losing custody of your child
Having a child removed from your care or placed with someone else against your wishes. Through a court, through a child welfare agency, through a family arrangement you had no power in, or through incarceration, illness, addiction, or immigration enforcement. Including losing contact gradually, and losing a child who is still alive and living somewhere you are not.
Grieving a living child is a grief most people have no framework for, so it often gets carried without any of the support that other losses receive. There is usually shame stacked on top of it, and the shame is not the same thing as the truth. Here it can be set down and looked at properly.
Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.
You do not have to carry this alone.
Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.