Research has shown that for each missing individual, at least 12 others are directly affected by their disappearance; financially, emotionally, and psychologically. The impact is profound.
The unique form of grief families and friends of missing people experience is called Ambiguous Loss. Many psychologists consider Ambiguous Loss to be the most traumatic kind of grief and the most unmanageable form of stress.
*Ambiguous Loss, the theory and the book; Emeritus Professor Dr Pauline Boss (Harvard University Press, 1999/2000)