Understanding The Stages Of Grief

Experiencing grief is a normal part of life. And as normal as it is, it doesn`t make it any easier. Grief can make you feel so many terrible emotions at once that you might feel like you want to climb into bed and never come out.There are stages that someone who is grieving will go through on their journey to recovery. These stages might help someone who is going through grief to understand where they are at and what stages might come next.

The first normal part of grieving is the denial stage. Usually you are grieving because the loss of something or someone is so tragic that it seems almost unreal. Sometimes things happen so fast that it is hard to process the information so quickly. It can often seem surreal to think about someone being gone; it is such an unusual concept to have a loved one gone forever.

It may be hard for you to accept it and so you may deny that it has even happened. It will take lots of support from loved ones and time to realize that it has happened. When you have felt the impact of time, realizing that a loss has occurred may feel just as painful as it did when you first found out.

These emotions might trigger the next stage which is feelings of anger. Your rage might be so built up after lying dormant inside of your denying stage that you might let it all out. Sometimes this anger just stays inside of you and nobody even knows that you are angry. But it is important during this stage to talk to loved ones and get support.

Just talking about it and letting it off your mind might help you work through your emotions. When you feel angry you will also feel helpless because there is nothing you can do to change the situation in the case of a loss.

The next stage in grief is feelings of depression. This is a brutal feeling that can make your entire being feel miserable and drenched in sadness. Your insides and outsides might hurt even as your mind copes with grief.

Often when sadness is so strong that it turns into depression, the whole situation can make a person not want to get out of bed or function at all. They may not want to eat, sleep, drink or even talk to anyone. Some people who are very depressed just stare ahead of them and tune the world out. Or someone can be depressed and their loved ones do not even know anything about it.

Feeling depressed can make you not want to take care of yourself. You may not feel the need to shower or brush your teeth because you feel that the grief your feeling is too over-powering and nothing else matters. Feeling depressed is normal, however there has to be a restricted amount of time of feeling this way. If it goes on too long it can ultimately change the life you have led forever. Depression time slots can vary from person to person, but the time it lasts should not make the person feel uncomfortable with it.

The last stage is accepting it. It is a long and lengthy process to get to this stage and it can leave a feeling of peace within yourself. Sometimes receiving grief counseling can encourage special things that you can do, to help you stay connected with the person lost and things to keep their memories alive.