Mary Cosby, Martin Short and the pain of losing an adult child

Losing an adult child can \

On Sunday, Feb. 23, two public figures experienced devastating losses. Actor and comedian Martin Short’s 42-year-old daughter, Katherine, died by suicide. Robert Cosby Jr., the 23-year-old son of "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Mary Cosby, also died. His cause of death has not yet been confirmed, but Salt Lake City police said that authorities had responded to an overdose call.

Grief can look different for every loss and individual depending on the relationship, cultural context, prior losses and the circumstances of the loss, according to Jessica Stacy, a licensed therapist who specializes in grief. But when a parent loses an adult child, the grief can "feel disorienting" because it "disrupts the expected life sequence," says Stacy.

Many parents, she explains, carry an implicit belief that they will die before their children.

"When that narrative is shattered," Stacy says, "it can create not only profound sadness but also existential disorientation, or a feeling that the world no longer makes sense."

When someone dies from suicide or an overdose, grief can be "tangled in stigma," says Gina Moffa, a grief therapist and author of "Moving on Doesn’t Mean Letting Go."