It’s a difficult one. It is a form of therapy for some people but I don’t think it is always useful. Many of the women I’ve watched on tik tok with them become obsessed and compulsive looking after these dolls, buying things for these dolls, it comes across as though it’s distracting from the root of their issue that they need therapy for and putting a block in the way of it.
My granny went through baby loss and back then it was even more taboo to talk about. She never even got to say bye to her baby or hold her baby, they just took him away and told her it would be best not to. Her baby was stillborn at full term and my heart breaks for her going through all that so alone. About 10 years ago she bought one of those reborn dolls and overnight got very obsessive. No word of a lie she had 24 dolls in the end. She had one personally handcrafted to resemble what she imagined her baby boy to look like from using photos of her other children as babies. Our family all intervened and in time she let go of all the dolls except the one she had specially made and now she just keeps him in her room and doesn’t fuss over it. I’m so glad we were able to get her away from it all because it’s almost like an addiction!
My granny went through baby loss and back then it was even more taboo to talk about. She never even got to say bye to her baby or hold her baby, they just took him away and told her it would be best not to. Her baby was stillborn at full term and my heart breaks for her going through all that so alone. About 10 years ago she bought one of those reborn dolls and overnight got very obsessive. No word of a lie she had 24 dolls in the end. She had one personally handcrafted to resemble what she imagined her baby boy to look like from using photos of her other children as babies. Our family all intervened and in time she let go of all the dolls except the one she had specially made and now she just keeps him in her room and doesn’t fuss over it. I’m so glad we were able to get her away from it all because it’s almost like an addiction!