Psychological Stages Of Grief Research Paper

Cornesia Rogers

The Psychological Stages of Grief The words sorrow and heartache are often used to describe the feelings of grief. Grief can be associated with the death of a loved one and/or family pet. Grief is a natural response to loss. It is the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. The more significant the loss, the more intense the grief will be. Regardless, when losing someone or something valuable, some level of grief will follow. According to studies grief can release a number of complications upon the body if it is not handled in the proper manner. Grief is known to have five psychological stages which are denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance. (Love, 2007 p.76)
The
first stage of grief is denial. Denial is the act of declaring something is untrue, refusing or disbelieving the truth. In this stage, there is a lot of shock, numbness and uncontrollable feelings. Denial is not saying “No, she is not dead” nor “I don’t believe you”, denial is more of “I just cannot believe this has happened.” Many believe denying something will take away the pain. In the stages of grief, denial is most common. Denial is common because no one really wants to accept the fact that their loved one is gone. (Lancaster)
The second stage of grief is anger.
When losing someone or something valuable, people are usually angry, or upset at the world. During this time, many mixed emotions and a lot of frustration is present. Frustration gives way to anger, and it can cause people to lash out and lay unwarranted blame for the death on someone or something else. Anger can present itself in a lot of ways that may include anger at loved one for “leaving too soon”, at others, and even at God for allowing this to happen. Anger can sometimes turn into guilt, guilt that something else could have been done and the loved one would have remained on this earth. (Lancaster
277-81)
The third stage of grief is bargaining.
Bargaining is often known as yearning, which means longing for life to go back to the “good old days” when everything was normal and the lost did not exist. Bargaining can begin before or after the loss. For example, if the loved one was diagnosed with cancer months ago, the bargaining began before the death. If the death is sudden and unexpected, bargaining takes place after the death. Once the acceptance stage begins, bargaining can be used to ease minds, and help focus more on the future and how everyone will soon reunite someday. (Dr. Christina Hibbert, stage 3)
Next is the fourth stage, which is depression. Depression is an illness that causes a constant feeling of sadness and lack of interest. Depression affects how someone feels, behaves and thinks. When losing someone close the doubts, hatred and feeling of “What is the point? or I have nothing to live for.”, May come along. These different emotions can be looked at as depression. Depression is a natural response to loss. However, depression is not clinical but rather bereavement and mourning. The different emotions of depression must be experienced in order to heal and accept.
(Meek)
Last but not least, the last stage of grief is acceptance. Acceptance is clearly saying it is time to move on, to try to get accustomed to everyday living without him/her or it. The facts will soon be accepted, but the loss will forever be within the family. Acceptance is not an easy process, especially accepting something that does not sit well with you. Acceptance takes time, but in the end it will all be worth it. (Sanders)
To conclude, there are five psychological stages of grief not everyone will go through them. Everyone is different; some people cope with things differently. They may go through every stage, but not in that particular order. The five stages of grief are guide posts that are used to help identify and understand what people may be experiencing.

Works Cited
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