Five Stages of Grief

Grief is an emotion that we have which is very complex and often misunderstood. Unfortunately, grief is something that we all will experience in our lives at one time or another. We will all experience loss in our lives. The stages of grief are the same whether it be through the death of a loved one, divorce, or some other loss. There are five stages of grief. It is said that if we get stuck in one of the stages, the process of grieving is not complete, and cannot be complete. This means that a person will not complete the entire healing process when there is a loss in their life. A person must go through all five stages of grief to be well again, and to fully heal. Not everyone goes through the stages at the same time. It is different for each person. You cannot force a person through the stages, and they have to experience each stage at their own pace. Someone may go one step forward then take two steps backward, but this is all part of the process. This process is individual to each person. But, it is stressed that all five stages must be completed for healing to occur. The first stage of grief is denial. It is very natural for someone to feel like this is not really happening to them. How many times have we said or heard someone else say "this can't be happening to me". Many people are in a state of shock during this stage. For example, when we here that a loved one is now dead, we just cannot believe that this is true. We just do not want to hear it or believe it. It is known that some people will still be setting the table at dinner time for the person, or acting as if they are still living there. People are seen looking for the loved one that passed away, or people may look for a former spouse in familiar places where they would often be together. During denial there is often no crying or any type of emotion. People are not accepting or even acknowledging the loss. The second stage of grief is anger. It is very natural to have feelings of anger