When I was trying to decide what to write today, I thought back on my week. A friend of mine passed away on Sunday and I'm grieving that loss. I'm working through my grief.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross states that we go through 5 stages of grief.
1. Denial - We are in a state of shock. This helps us to survive the loss and to pace our feelings of grief.
2. Anger - Be willing to feel your anger so it will dissipate and you can heal. With anger is also pain, which is just a way of showing how much we care.
3. Bargaining - This is the "if only..." or "what if..." stage. Guilt frequently accompanies bargaining. The "if onlys" cause us to find fault in ourselves and what we could have done differently.
4. Depression - We feel withdrawn and in intense sadness. This stage is very important and necessary. Don't fight the feelings.
5. Acceptance - This does not mean that you are "OK" with what happened. You will never be "OK" with it but you will continue to live. It's about accepting the reality of the loss and having more good days than bad days.
Some people may repeat some of the stages, may not go this order and may skip a stage. If this happens it doesn't mean that you are not grieving. We are all unique and we all grieve in our own way.
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