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Seven Grief Stages

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Seven Grief Stages
Kathleen Lopp
Ms. Owens
Biology
February 8, 2011
The Seven Stages of Grief

Grief is the body’s natural response to a loss. The loss could be felt for the death of a loved one, loss of a friendship, loss of a spouse, someone or something that is considered dear to you or possibly a fatal injury that could lead to death. Almost everyone suffers some type of emotional distress caused by their loss. Grief is specified as a feeling of intense sorrow or sadness due to severe injury of a loved one and most of the time, death. This feeling of grief is an emotional reaction that will soon pass with time, but in some cases, may take years to get past. The grieving person passes through many complicated stages with many different emotions …show more content…
Shock is a self-defensive state of mind with outcomes of denial of the facts that have happened. The person may think they are daydreaming and will refuse to accept the situation at hand. The hearing of the news does not tend to register with the griever, who in turn disregards the facts, and may also try and prove the messenger cannot be trusted. The next stage is denial, which usually does not last long. Most people tend to refuse to accept and are unable to accept the reality of the situation. Many times the person is simply trying to wrap their head around the fact of death or severe injury of a loved one. Denial does not mean that you don’t know that your loved one died, it simply means you have come home and cannot believe that that loved one is not going to be walking through that door again. Denial is our body’s personal protective mechanism that helps us to cope with the overwhelming situation and make survival …show more content…
Now when anger is expressed, this is when the grief process starts to become evident. The person may get angry due to the injustice of the situation. You may become angry at the person for leaving you or possibly angry with yourself that you should have done something else to save them. This is where anger management comes into play. Only you can be your best anger management resource. Depression can follow rapidly after this stage. Depression is not just a standalone stage, but frequently occurs during all or most of the grieving process. It can just as well follow every stage in the process. Here the person can feel despair and have passive actions for a period of time. They see no answer to their loss and become reluctant to behave in a normal fashion, therefore folding into a state of
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