Well, incidentally, I came across this concept first time while watching an episode of How I met you Mother where Barney explains it to Ted. Henceforth, it occurred at many places and intrigued me further as I am going through some grief(Actually, everyone does in some way or the other). So, I thought about researching it.
Apparently, this was introduced by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and was aimed at describing the emotional stages of any and all kinds of grieved persons. She said that all may not experience all the five stages ut at least two is experienced by everyone. Also, the order may not be the same, however, this is what is generally observed.
The five stages are:
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
Actually, I think that this really happens and I personally seem to have gone through these stage and finally arrived at the last stage that is of acceptance. At first, you are not even willing to believe that something has happened. It is like if you close your eyes, the weather would become fine. But when you open your eyes you see that has not exactly happened and then you are angry at the world, blaming it for your situation. Even then when it is there standing in you face, not budging, you bargain. You say, ok, fine now this will happen. Don’t give me the utopia but give me one good thing. Still that does not happen. Its all the same, may be even worse. You are tired, hopeless and depressed. You stay away from people, shut yourself mentally and brood about it a lot. While doing this retrospection and introspection, you realize that things that have happened cannot be changed and the fault was either not yours or was yours but has been made and in future needs to be changed. Then , you slowly accept the reality as it stands and take steps to better it or swallow hard.
This all happened to me and seeing a theory on it made me feel a little weird but that is what psychiatrist sort of people do right? Categorizing feelings and emotional responses. just thought would write it out. Makes for a great conversational tool and also helps in understanding who are going through grief.
2 responses so far ↓
Elaine Williams // March 10, 2008 at 8:06 am |
Wonderful post. Grief does happen like this, but it can also take on other forms, and sometimes you feel almost great, and then you suddenly get hit with it again and you’re thrust down into the bowels of grief once more. But slowly, things do begin to ease a bit and you adjust to your life the way it is, and perhaps even move along to something new. New paths, new growth.
itsfine // March 11, 2008 at 10:43 am |
That’s so true. It is like the fork in the road and you can then choose which way to go…whether grow strong out of it or remain wounded forever